A big story over the holidays:
Holiday traffic and the inevitable cliches :
– Interview with the distressed traveller in front of the long check-in line or TSA line at a major airport … Whining about delays…then an older couple staying calm…and the Reporter talking about the heavy traffic expected and delays with the “be sure to call your airline and arrive early” … a few basic tips for clearing TSA and stock film of a 737 takeoff and the departure board monitor…
Other than the SAME format for the story on every station, that’s been used for 40+ years, there’s an opportunity to tell these stories differently.
…and of course lines forming at gas stations with heavy comments on the gas prices…and insane crowds at a big box stores. I’m guessing this year we’ll see a lot of photos of backed up freight too
The point: This is media autopilot at its best… when it’s not hard to make these omnipresent stories interesting and informational in totally new ways that can lead to a rethink that breaks the cliche cycle.
BONUS CLICHE!-
Christmas’ #1 advertising cliche: Changing the lyrics of Christmas songs to a product sell. Last year I counted scores of versions of Deck The Halls and other seasonal classics with lyrics changed to pitch products– OK…kinda clever, but now EVERYONE is doing it and the clever becomes ‘enough already.”
