by Bat-Tzion » Sat 30 Dec 2006, 15:04:15
Patti
I found Mr Blister rather insensitve too. We ladies who aint got calluses on our hearts get affected by that kind of arrogance.
I thought about your target audiences and the ultimate goals of such a show. Although most of your other comments pertain to the rough promo itself I am thinking ahead to the show content and trying to offer suggestions fast, before the anti-semites/anti-Zionists who inhabit virtually all peak oil public discussions chase me out of here.
Anyway, please forgive me if this is naive. I haven't watched American TV in any substantial amounts for 30 years.
First, what is the ultimate goal of this show? I suggest it is to save lives and I hope you are aware of that. Nobody is going to be able to survive a fast crash by making an urban backyard garden. But urban gardening can be used as training for what they may need to do as refugees (in a fast crash) or as migrants to the country, or genuine urban farmers (in a slower crash). They need transportable SKILLS with hand tools, soil, sun, water, compost, seeds, plants, trees, and animals. So even though the show sponsors may want you to focus on expensive construction projects that use their products, somehow you've got to get people to learn those essential skills instead. They need to learn how to use a hammer, saw, screwdriver, and so forth. Really, if you can, forget about the power tools. In the upcoming world a woodworking shop with power tools will probably be a community resource. Eventually, individuals will have only hand tools and will all need to know how to use them.
As to your intended audiences, I say you should consider specific target audiences/markets, not make such a broad sweep to a generalized audience, and yes, you have to decide if you really want to target women or men.
First, maybe you could really just target women, perhaps those with children. If you focus more on hand tools you will have a much broader base. Blister is right about the issue of women picking up power tools. Most won't. So don't be the one to try to sell them on that idea. Get them to do things naturally their way. Maybe there is a good market among stay-at-home women with children, a superset of the home schooling market. We women could really respect you for your actual work, not just your great looks. Furthermore, women who may have to care for children on their own during the years of struggle are going to really need to be competent and confident to do things without men. I hope that countless children's lives could be saved that way.
Another potential market is educational TV. Maybe you'll never make any money that way, but there is a huge audience of junior high school and high school youth with physical energy--perhaps just waiting and ready to do somethign more practical and productive than study trigonometry and ancient history and play sports? Getting to such a group would require some marketing to their teachers. Maybe there is a group of aware and serious students (and teachers) who are ready to act on their knowledge of PO, GW, etc. I suggest this because here in Israel environmental education is quite focused on youth--the adults are always way too busy to do anything about it and less inclined to change mindset and behavior.
You really have to find people who have time to do something in their back yard and also enough money to buy the sponsor's products. On the other hand, if you went via PBS, could you get sponsors who deal in information instead of products? Just a thought. Maybe some book publishers?
Is there any money to be made in just making "how-to" videos and distributing them via Internet and various kinds of libraries? I doubt that is what you had in mind as mainstream, but I consider public libraries of key importance as we get into a transition period. They are going to be repositories and distributors of a lot of vital information, especially as the internet gradually fades.
That's it for now.
Shalom and blessings on your work
Bat-Tzion