The Royal Flush
How would you handle a promo about shopping around for a new toilet bowl? Does it call for a gritty, spy-thriller music bed, and dark, moodily-lit shots of potentially perilous potties? Heck no! If you’re anything like me, you play it for laughs and drench it with cheesy cartoon music. I rather liked this approach, and it did get a lot of people’s attention…but to put it mildly, let’s just say that the management didn’t necessarily appreciate the humorous approach. (Let’s not even get into the following night’s Consumer Beat package on choosing the best toilet paper.)
There were many more promos produced in the latter half of 2000 than usual due to the resurrection of the news department at competing NBC 24/51. A good sized flock of 40/29 personnel left for the new gig, including weather anchor Steve Gibbs, reporters Tobie Edwards and Rhonda Justice, and others. Their news debuted on August 3rd, 2000 (one day after the end of July sweeps), and with that in mind, management at 40/29 took the decision to treat the August-September-October doldrums like one big sweeps period leading up to the November book, just to make sure we were in the limelight at much as 24/51.
