I, like many of you, was enthralled by the Lazy Sunday short ["the Chronic-{what?}-les of Narnia" rap] that was on Saturday Night Live a couple of months ago. After being posted on You Tube the clip was viewed over five million times. The sketch became a cult classic, reigniting interest in SNL and giving it a fresh new attitude. But somewhere along the way greed took over. NBC gave You Tube a cease and desist order, also demanding that they take all NBC content off their site. In addition to this, they started selling Lazy Sunday on iTunes for $1.99 [isn't that the same price for an entire episode of Lost or The Office?]. This money-motivated move has squelched the clip's momentum and has drawn the ire of many in the blogosphere.
Church of the Consumer did an excellent job of tracing the rise [and fall] of this fad and also criticizing NBC for getting too wolfish. It's amazing that these networks are supposed to employ some of the sharpest minds in the marketing world and yet they were oblivious to the PR goldmine they had on their hands.
I've been a fan of SNL since junior high school. From Dana Carvey and Mike Myers to Chris Farley and Adam Sandler, the show was hysterical. But they're in the midst of [by my count] an eight year slump. They need all the help they can get to convince the public that the show is still relevant. The Lazy Sunday clip was a great ambassador. But NBC didn't want to lose out on the short-term cash cow. Way to be near-sighted.
For you entrepreneurial types out there, this goof by NBC is a great lesson. What's the goal of every successful business? [Be honest] It's to make money. But sometimes you gotta spend [or sacrifice] a little money to make even more. Nickle and diming will only get you so far.
So you can still call me Aaron Burr from the way I'm dropping Hamiltons but, rest assured, it's not on SNL iTunes downloads.