Crass Content: The Hottest Ticket in Media

First OJ was going to re-imagine killing his wife, Nicole. Next, we were supposed get a book that would re-imagine the bawdy adventures of baseball’s late Yankee Great Mickey Mantle. The book’s working title was “7.” The number on Mantle’s uniform. Crass Content is the calculated leap to the next generation of entertainment. The predecessor of this new wave is “Not Really Reality TV. You know the shows that reinterpret the spontaneous by being scripted. They are grossly (and I do mean gross) popular. Why would news bred Julie Chen trade in her media reporter credibility to become a hardcore talking kewpie doll host for one such program? Popularity breeds money. Everyone wants to jump aboard the money train.

Is this the next true jump from “Not Really Reality TV?”

Judith Reagan the woman cited as being behind these ventures has been relieved of her employment at HarperCollins publishing. The publishing giant is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp multimedia conglomerate, owners of media outlets world wide such as the New York Post and The Sun tabloids as well as Fox Broadcasting and more. With both ventures scrapped, reports claim four hundred thousand copies of the already printed O.J. book have been shredded. Some will forecast doom for this genre based on this failure.

Is this the death knell for Crass Content Media?

Since Judith Regan is the mastermind behind such questionable but notable productions as the A&E cable channel’s “Growing Up Gotti” reality show, I doubt this is the end. History has proven innovators like Regan succeed by constantly pushing the envelope. Just like earlier “Not Really Reality TV” the first to enter a new genre usually do fail. The fact that the OJ project was able to precede along as far as it did, means there is a market for this type of media presentation. Slash fest movies are a prefect example of the evolution of a market. Once considered low budget niche market fare, these movies are now a multimillion dollar industry. The most prolific example is the movie “Saw”. The budget for the movie was a mere 1.2 million dollars. The movie grossed over $102 million worldwide. Now “Saw” is a movie franchise. “Saw IV” was ushered into preproduction a week after the release of “Saw III.” Slash fest movies have come a long way since Tobe Hooper’s original “Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” At present, the Slash fest is a profitable staple of the Hollywood movie industry.

What is the future of the Crass Content industry?

It is all about the money. Judith Regan has just hit a wall. I, myself, was appalled at the OJ Simpson stunt. As for Mickey Mantle, his life doesn’t have to be re-imagined, it was crass enough. If Ms. Regan isn’t the one to find a way to mine the breakthrough, someone else will. It is just a matter of time before someone picks the right project at the right time.

In the business sense, I view this as a ground floor opportunity. Maybe I will ride the wave after few more who dare to go before me begin to scratch the surface. Crass Content is about re-imagining the unimaginable. That said I could re-imagine the war in Iraq five years from now when the time is ripe. I could call my twist, “How GWB Saved A Nation.” As society’s tastes changes, by then it might not even be close to being crass enough.