Family Guy Offends Microsoft
Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 1:26 am
We recently reported on FOX's Seth MacFarlane variety show - Family Guy Presents: Seth & Alex's Almost Live Comedy Show - and how it was part of an "ambitious and unique marketing collaboration" with Microsoft to help showcase the best of Windows 7. Well now, according to Variety, Microsoft has dropped out of the partnership after their executives were shocked by the Family Guy-style humor they heard at the October 16th taping of the special.
Straight from the "what were they thinking? files, it looks as if the execs were not prepared for jokes about the deaf, the Holocaust, incest and feminine hygiene. In short, it seems like none of them had ever actually watched an episode of Family Guy before.
The special will still air as planned, on November 8th, but with a different, TBD corporate partner.
"We initially chose to participate in the Seth and Alex variety show based on the audience composition and creative humor of 'Family Guy,' but after reviewing an early version of the variety show it became clear that the content was not a fit with the Windows brand," said a Microsoft spokesperson. "We continue to have a good partnership with Fox, Seth MacFarlane and Alex Borstein and are working with them in other areas. We continue to believe in the value of brand integrations and partnerships between brands, media companies and talent."
Microsoft might be done with the "Almost Live Comedy Show," but the rest of the marketing deal, some of which still includes Family Guy, remains in place.
source
Straight from the "what were they thinking? files, it looks as if the execs were not prepared for jokes about the deaf, the Holocaust, incest and feminine hygiene. In short, it seems like none of them had ever actually watched an episode of Family Guy before.
The special will still air as planned, on November 8th, but with a different, TBD corporate partner.
"We initially chose to participate in the Seth and Alex variety show based on the audience composition and creative humor of 'Family Guy,' but after reviewing an early version of the variety show it became clear that the content was not a fit with the Windows brand," said a Microsoft spokesperson. "We continue to have a good partnership with Fox, Seth MacFarlane and Alex Borstein and are working with them in other areas. We continue to believe in the value of brand integrations and partnerships between brands, media companies and talent."
Microsoft might be done with the "Almost Live Comedy Show," but the rest of the marketing deal, some of which still includes Family Guy, remains in place.
source