To promote their Broadway show, The Importance of Being Earnest, Roundabout Theater has launched a video series in which actors recite lines from MTV’s Jersey Shore in the style of Oscar Wilde.
The results are 'Capital, old man!' Or 'Slammin'', depending on your view.
Delivering lines like “You like your women how you like your underwear -- dirty” with a Victorian accent and cocked eyebrow, make a mash up that's far funnier for both eras.
What we find most appealing about this idea is the mix of low-brow and high-brow, and new and old media.
Tagging videos on YouTube with a popular search term like ‘Jersey Shore’ guarantees more exposure than traditional promotion. The videos have been picked up broadly on sites and blogs given the entertainment factor and the ease of sharing online.
Of course, Monty Python did this jokes-taposition years ago. Karl Marx losing on trivia in a game show once they veered beyond the Das Kapital questions. Socrates vs Aristotle…in a soccer match up.
But think about your business now, in a creative, mash-up way. How could you reframe your content, or delivery, in a way that reached more people, or a different market?
Could Kia create Dancing with the Cars, where non-drivers are taught to win? And viewers learn the key to stunt driving? Could an Athenian style restaurant have a Greek of the Week message sent out on Twitter to promote a meal deal and a philosophic insight, Plato-style.
Anyway, The Snookis of the world are probably hitting the club, not the theater.
But reaching a broader audience by tapping a current cultural rave for what WAS a cultural rave 100 years ago? That demonstrates a certain 'savoir faire'…and Wilde would approve of it. Or at least revel in the Situation.
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