For many years, CBS was often referred to as the “Tiffany Community.” Now, CBS President/Chief Publicity Officer Mike Benson is able to “break some Tiffany glass.”
The executive, who has been giving CBS a modern image makeover since taking over in 2019, has now turned his attention to its comedy lineup. Timed for the fall launch of the four Eye community comedies, Benson has launched the “You’re Laughing at CBS” marketing campaign.
“People will say that CBS is stale and boring, but really, when you look at our programming, it’s not,” Benson said. “I think we have a lot of work to do, from a modeling perspective, to show that we can have a lot of fun. That we’re prepared to poke fun at ourselves as much as we want people to come back and laugh at the shows that we’ve got.”
The “You’re Laughing at CBS” tagline will give attention to returning hits “Ghosts” and “The Neighborhood,” as well as the new “Young Sheldon” spinoff “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage” and the new Damon Wayans/Damon Wayans Jr. series “Poppa’s Home.”
“We thought this could be a really good time to add another dimension to the model with what we’ve had in comedy, and bring some extra thought to it,” Benson said. “We had this idea that actually started with, ‘You’re laughing at CBS,’ but then I really wanted to be provocative and have fun with it.”
As part of the new laugh track, CBS is also introducing a smiling version of its Eye logo — which it has dubbed “Chuckle.” (And yes, that’s a sly reference to the character “Chuckles the Clown” from CBS’s “Mary Tyler Moore” show.)
“We’ve got this ‘Chuckles’ branding that we want to put on all of our comedies, just to indicate that they’re licensed as comedy,” Benson said. “And we really want viewers to start seeing that CBS smiley-eye branding.”
Including this, Benson mentioned that CBS will begin referring to the term “sitcom” as “sit-down” comedy, to distinguish it from the explosion of “stand-up” comedy on other networks.
“There’s a lot of stand-up comedy out there,” he said. “However, we’re looking at it not from the perspective of what the comedians do, but from the perspective of the value we’re providing to our viewers almost every day.”
CBS is kicking off its comedy rebrand with an event on Wednesday, Sept. 18 at NeueHouse in Hollywood (in the same building that was once CBS’s exclusive West Coast headquarters). “CBS Presents: You’re Laughing at CBS, An Evening of ‘Sit-Down’ Comedy” will feature “The Neighborhood” star Max Greenfield and “Poppa’s Home” star Damon Wayans Jr., hosting an evening of screenings and Q&A periods.
The “You’re Laughing at CBS” brand will also be shared in on-air and social spots, which will feature content from the Eye’s comedy community. Right now, the brand is focused on the four shows, but Benson said it could eventually expand to late night and hourlong comedy-oriented features like “Elsbeth.”
The “You’re Laughing at CBS” tagline shares a sensibility with Netflix’s comedic slogan “Netflix is a Joke,” which uses identical ironic wordplay.
“Netflix does good advertising, and what they did around the hookup comedy, I thought was really acceptable to them,” Benson said. “It was a reminder that, normally, their advertising should be as loud and as loud as the programming itself.”
“Ghosts” and “George & Mandy’s First Marriage” will be released on Thursday, October 17, while “Poppa’s Home” and “The Neighborhood” will premiere on Monday, October 21.
Additionally, Benson mentioned that CBS has its advertising plans in the works for new series, including Kathy Bates’ “Matlock,” the “NCIS” prequel “NCIS: Origins” and the unscripted entry “The Summit.”
“We have a really good, provocative marketing campaign that’s still true to the current ‘Matlock,’ but it starts to put Kathy Bates in a position where she’s probably not the Matlock you’re really expecting, because there’s an incredible twist at the end of the pilot… and with ‘NCIS: Origins,’ Leroy Jethro Gibbs is someone that all NCIS fans know, but we really want to step out and create that sense of mystery around who and what he is.”
It’s been a year since the Hollywood strikes delayed last year’s TV season, and the presidential election also distracted audiences, so entrepreneurs like Benson know they have their work cut out for them to attract viewers. “It’s been incredibly difficult, and strategically, it was really necessary for us to bring football back,” he said. “I’m not just talking about the NFL, but we’ve put a lot of effort into bringing the Big Ten and the NFL back, and then leveraging those platforms to give us the reach we need to build enjoyment for the fall.”
Here’s a first look at CBS’s promo for “You’re Laughing at CBS”:
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