Buying Into The Pitch

With the launch of Mad Men, AMC achieved something that few artistic/commercial enterprises do: a buzzy hit that was also an award monster that was also providing weekly excuses for real brands to jump on board. Every episode provides an opportunity for a product-placed consumer brand to be the centerpiece of one of the most elegant, prestigious shows on television (and yes, I know some of these brands don't pay to get on the show -- I have to think Hershey certainly didn't -- but I sure remember a lot of Heineken ads during the episodes when that brand was a Sterling Cooper client). With the success of Mad Men an undeniable fact, why not take the idea of the advertising industry, set it in the present, and make it a reality show that's sort of a competition, and potentially get friendly with even more consumer brands?

The Pitch is pretty unremarkable as reality shows go: in each episode, two ad agencies get a brief from the same client, and we watch them figure out their strategy for the campaign for a while until they both give their pitches and the client picks one. (So it's not a reality competition in the usual sense; the only prize is the business they'll get from the client if they book the campaign.) However, it takes its berth on the same schedule as Mad Men VERY seriously: it looks so expensive and educational and intense that you almost get sucked into its aura until you notice that the whole thing is revolving around, like, PopChips. Actually, that was one of the fancier brands last season -- I'm looking at you, Waste Management! Tonight's Season 2 premiere features College Hunks Hauling Junk, which is quite a comedown from the likes of C. Wonder and Frangelico.

I think we started watching The Pitch in its first season because as veterans of interactive agencies, my esteemed colleague David T. Cole and I have spent a fair amount of time with people who work at the intersection of "selling" and "kind of art?" You might expect that the industry that turned "creative" into a noun would...not be, and you would be correct. The Pitch lets them hang themselves with talking-head interviews about their process and philosophy and all that bullshit, and truly, you haven't known schadenfreude until you've sat through them, mouth agape.

Then there's the glimpses you get inside the agencies, and the various ways their founders or partners have imposed a "culture" on the workplace with self-conscious decorative quirk. Will this place have screaming orange beanbag chairs in the conference room IdeaSpace? Will the other place feature nothing but organic soy snacks and Red Bull in the break room ReFuelatorium? (Those are made-up examples. But they are not far off from the real shit, I promise.)

The most delicious/infuriating part of The Pitch is the pitch itself. Maybe the issue is that real advertising agencies worth a damn wouldn't ever participate in a show like this, but the pitches are generally terrible and unconvincing even when they aren't plagued by technical difficulties. Furthermore, in the first season, the clients picked the pitches I thought were weaker 100% of the time. It made me insane, and is why The Pitch is one of the most yelled-at shows both residents of this household watch. I implore you to DVR this shit so that we can all yell at it together.

The Pitch airs at 11 PM Thursdays on AMC.