As you might know from previous entries, Janet and I are musical theater buffs.. and lately our favorite musical is Jonathan Larson's RENT. RENT is coming to San Francisco for the first time in March and the hype is already beginning: the newspaper ads, the radio spots and now the television promotions.
The story of RENT is that of a group of young bohemians in Alphabet City, a part of the East Village of New York. UPN 44 decided that the appropriate giveaway for their RENT promotion is a free month's worth of rent (a common promotion on the national tour). However, they decided to combine the promotion by also using it to pimp a television show, also about a group of young adults in New York City: Friends.
Friends is the story of a bunch of white upper class young adults that only associate with other white upper class young adults. RENT, is the story of a multi-cultural bunch of young adults scraping by while dealing with disease, eviction and death.
Do you see the parallel? If you do, please let me know, because I honestly have no idea what message they're trying to give the residents of San Francisco with this promotion.
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