No, I Don’t Want A Glass of Burgundy

By Sucheta Shankar, Staff Writer

Yes, I’m talking about what everyone already spent too much time talking about – Anchorman 2

(Does anyone else think this movie is being set up for failure with such a HUGE marketing effort?)

But before I begin, it’s necessary to recognize that I have a serious bias against Anchorman. I don’t find that kind of humour funny, and I haven’t seen the first Anchorman movie either.

Despite these biases, I was impressed with all the stops the movie’s marketing team pulled to release this movie with a bang. It hasn’t been done before and they really explored every venue they could to market this.

However, it wasn’t well executed. The unique nature of this marketing would’ve hit the right notes with more careful execution.

When did I first realize Anchorman 2 is around the corner? Of all places, it was the bloody Dodge Durango commercial.

I remember watching Ron Burgundy show up in the Dodge Durango commercials, and my knee jerk reaction was confusion. How was Ron Burgundy helping Dodge Durango’s message anyway? It seemed like an easy route for Dodge to use, but I’m not sure if it translated to enough interest in the brand or just Ron Burgundy. The goal of course, was mostly to highlight Dodge using Ron Burgundy, instead of the other way around.

I thought the TV commercials would be the end, but my hopes lead to nothing. If anything, I was days away from the marketing avalanche that flooded any medium I touched. There were articles, videos, TV spots, websites and anything else you can think of with Ron Burgundy. It really didn’t make much sense.

For example, what did Anchorman 2 gain out of partnership with Jockey? Does it even say anything about the movie at all?

It’s important for everyone who finds all of this exciting to remember what they retained from it all: Do you remember the partnerships like that Ben and Jerry thing? Was Ron Burgundy in a car commercial really that exciting? Was it even saying something relevant?

Given my dislike for this kind of comedy, I will refrain from making conclusions for others. But if you find satisfactory answers to the questions I raised above, then I hope you enjoyed the ride while it lasted. To me, it seemed like the marketing plan was unnecessary excess. More lavish than Ron Burgundy will ever be.

UPDATE: It seems like too much marketing didn’t affect the movie too negatively. However, it didn’t make satisfactory profits in comparison to the original ‘The Anchorman’ either. Seems like it was desolated by Bilbo Baggins – or maybe Smaug had something to do with it?

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Six months after forty-eight hours of intensive labour, I (@suchetashankar) started to communicate and haven’t stopped since. I enjoy channeling that passion towards writing, whether it is the creative or journalistic kind. If I’ve got you curious, feel free to check me out at www.suchetashankar.com