A $50,000 marketing ploy still will not entice me to watch

Country Music Television announced on Monday that they will pay $50,000 to the mother of the first baby born in the United States during the ‘Labor’ Day weekend premiere of comedian Jeff Foxworthy’s sketch comedy show called “Foxworthy’s Big Night Out”.

The show premiers Friday, September 1 so the winning mother will be the one that delivers their baby first on that same day. If by chance there is a tie, CMT will conduct a random drawing to determine the winner. The person that identifies the first baby born will win $1,000.

In addition, CMT will donate a 42-inch flat screen HDTV to the hospital where the winning birth occurs. It will also award $5,000 to the other mothers that deliver the first baby on each day the following 11 episodes air.

To this I say, ‘wow’. That is a whole lot of money to dish out trying to get people to tune in. However, is this marketing ploy really accomplishing its goal of getting people to watch? One can read the various articles out there explaining the ‘game’, become aware of the show, and potentially win money without ever having to watch one episode. I know that I and all my pregnant friends I emailed the story too, telling them to do what they can to have their babies on September 1, will not watch. So what will this do for the ratings? Absolutely nothing. In my opinion this is a bad idea with CMT royally failing. I can’t wait to see what happens next. Till the next bad promotional idea…..