Have you seen the annoying new ad campaign for the ESPN SportsCenter relaunch? If you watch even a half-hour of ESPN programming -- or like me, Around the Horn and Pardon the Interruption -- you can't miss these commercials. There's a young, 20-something guy named Steve running around with a bulky, scoreboard-like digital clock with a strap that hangs around his neck like he's a peanut vendor at a baseball game.
The ads show him going through his day -- working out at the gym, jogging -- while he's waiting for the launch of the new, 9-hour SportsCenter on August 11. The commercials are completely live, which I grant you is novel, but they are not funny, clever or up to the ESPN standard. I hate them. They're jarring, poorly done and, like I said, annoying. I guess some genius in marketing decided that any way to make the viewer remember that a new format is coming is good enough.
Here's a sample of Steve's work (don't say I didn't warn you!):
FOX has ordered up a new batch of American Dad episodes for the 2008-09 season, according to a statement released by FOX today.
Clay Aiken and Days of Our Lives. Why didn't I think of this? It's a perfect pairing, really. Both are equally over the top. Clay will appear as himself in a Christmas episode, where he'll give a private concert for two of the show's characters, Kayla and Steve.
So let's see if they can keep the quality of the show up from last week. Yea... nope. It was still a funny episode, but as well as Family Guy embraces it's raunchy humor, and walking that fine line in much the same way that South Park does, American Dad always seems to go just a step too far with it's stupidness, outlandishness and political views. Now before you all start writing to tell me it's supposed to be a satire about right-wingers and their views, I know, I know. It's just that it seems so forced and it's punchlines are done better and funnier in about a dozen different venues, most notably, Jon Stewart's brilliant 
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