The median age of the Idol audience has risen every year–currently it’s 40 years old. In light of the troubling news–the advertisers crave those young eyeballs–the brain trust at Idol have come up with an, uhm, interesting idea to capture the attention of the young ones.
The LA Times’ Richard Rushfield received a press release from the Idol folks:
Loads of Good Clean Fun!
AMERICAN IDOL is cleaning up in the ratings this season and FOX is sending a big thank you to college students across the country with free laundry detergent for loads of good clean fun! On Tuesday, February 3, college students on select college campuses across the country will receive free AMERICAN IDOL laundry detergent via AMERICAN IDOL street teams.
College students are a big part of AMERICAN IDOLà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s success as they make the show a priority time and time again à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’ perhaps causing their laundry to suffer! As if quarter-hungry washing machines and mismatched socks werenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t enough for the starving studentà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s budget, weà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢re making things a little bit easier and curing those laundry blues with complimentary AMERICAN IDOL detergent boxes.
Be there as college students receive their free AMERICAN IDOL detergent, and hear what they have to say as they continue to soak up the exciting new season of AMERICAN IDOL!
Do you think free detergent will convince your average college student that American Idol isn’t the lamest lame that ever lamed? I’m predicting epic fail!
Ha, they’ll be dropping by my neighborhood–Boston College–on February 3rd.
I agree the idea of giving money, or maybe Idols cds… after all they are selling the music isn ´t …
If they want younger people to turn on is easy, choose current music and teachers who are new, and made it cool to see to program… if it not, I bet all those college students have better things to do that watch tv, I mean I only watch about 4 hour of tv at the week (Criminal Minds, House, CSI…Maybe brothers & Sister if I feel like it), I raether use my time in Internet, reading, hanging out with my friends or at work… so I don ´t think college student are going to run to turn on the tv for any program any time soon ( or they maybe if they do Wild On Idol, E! or Girls Next Goor Idol)…
How wound one measure the efficacy of said promotion?
Maybe they should offer an American Idol Board game for college students, instead. Complete with shot glasses and rules. Every time Randy says “Dawg” – drink. That way you ensure they watch! LOL.
This is a pretty lame idea. Hopefully they didn’t pick colleges where most of the kids go home for the weekend to do their laundry!
College students……….hence a college tour LOL
laundry detergent? seriously?
I really, really don’t get the tie-in. Did someone order a bunch of laundry soap by mistake?
Oh man, I want one of those tribbles cheese got!!!