TWC Weather Channel, The Front, Missing Commercial #3

Well Maybe the rain hates you! The Weather Channel Front commercial for weather fans. If you watch frame by frame on this original series sumnmer '97 (not the redone ones from 4/98), the place is 100% TWC. The actors are better -- the guy at the bar should win an award! The original front commercials are the best-produced commercials of ALL TIME.. and , the best part, I bet the football jock a-holes they're really ripping on don't even get it! hehe :-)

I found this article talking about the ad campaign, I believe from the media company that made the ads. Sorry I don't have the proper credit.

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A smart, amusing campaign finds a devoted audience for The Weather Channel.

Let's face it. Talking about the weather is generally considered to be as interesting as watching paint dry. So it follows that a channel dedicated to forecasting the weather 24 hours a day didn't exactly make for great TV. Weather forecasts are extremely accessible and many people didn't require The Weather Channel's expertise on a daily basis, let alone at 3 a.m. Consequently, as competition for cable distribution became more fierce, cable companies increasingly saw TWC as a replaceable commodity.

TWC had to become indispensable to the cable lineup, or the likes of ESPN, which was multiplying like rabbits, would soon be usurping its channel position with yet a third network. We needed to transform the perception of TWC from a commodity product into an engaging brand with a devoted viewership. The challenge was how to do this when our very product--weather--was seen as, in a word, boring.

Enter "The Revelation."

Weather isn't boring to everyone. TWC had a group of viewers who watched religiously--a cult following. To them, weather was about more than accurate forecasts. They spoke of "awe and fascination" for the "mystery," "wonder" and "power" of Mother Nature. Though avid viewers, they were embarrassed to admit it. They were "in the closet," so to speak. Think about it--being into the weather wasn't exactly like being into sports. After all, those who are unabashedly into the weather--meteorologists--come off as a bunch of geeks.

What most people didn't know is that beneath the surface, meteorologists have an unbridled, endearing enthusiasm for weather. One meteorologist summed it up: "Weather's fascinating. You can run all the forecasting models perfectly and Mother Nature can still throw you a curveball." What happened? Why didn't this passion translate onto the screen?

Ironically, meteorologists had repressed their passion to give people what they wanted: predictability. Weather wasn't inherently boring. Science had made it boring. If we could remystify what had been demystified, we could make weather and The Weather Channel interesting. We therefore repositioned TWC around its passion for weather, rather than focusing on its forecasting expertise.

The advertising needed to not only convey TWC's passion but also celebrate the viewers' passion for weather--making it OK for them to "come out of the closet." In order to make TWC socially acceptable, we had to recognize there was something inherently amusing about being that into weather. We decided to laugh at ourselves so people would laugh with us, not at us.

The creative solution was to invent a weather bar called "The Front," a spoof on a sports bar, that boldly proclaims: "Weather fans you're not alone." The idea borrowed an accepted obsession with sports to create an accepted obsession with weather.

As a result of the campaign, TWC has maintained cable distribution and increased viewership by 3 million households. Most importantly, 73 percent of people who saw the advertising think of TWC as "passionate about the weather." So, watch out, weather fans are taking the country by storm.

Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• weather
• channel
• fans
• you're
• not
• alone
• the
• front
• commercial
• twc

[ablethreefourbravo]

I reference this commercial all of the time, but nobody ever knows what I'm talking about :-(

[djbrianflorence]

@ablethreefourbravo well maybe the rain hates you! :-)

[willandjill1]

Thank the Lord I am not the only one who appreciates and remembers this commercial. Simply put, it changed my life like the "hang in there" kitten poster. God Bless you djbrianflorence, God Bless you

[djbrianflorence]

@willandjill1 Thank you for the kind words!!!

[balintviewer]

This is my favorite TWC commercial of all time. The bottle breaking and the "it's not worth it Jerry" at the end are absolutely awesome; Jerry is about to go ape on this guy and the regulars have seen it all before. so sweet.

[djbrianflorence]

the glass breaks while he's saying "Jerry". Its in there! :-)

[NizzleHudsizzle]

Oh my god this commercial has been embedded in my brain for YEARS, I love it! It should have waaaaaaaaay more views than this

[geemoe2007]

One of the...GREATEST...COMMERCIALS..­.EVER. :-)

[saltyninja01]

Lol brings back sooo many memories

[VanillaLimeCoke]

That was crazy but funny.

[rossandmusic]

Awesome commercial! :) Love it!

IT IRRIGATES CROPS!!!!!!!!!

[wxretro]

Info for truFans; on-air Wednesday 1998'01'07-09:57(AM) Its an UNLISTED VID as you already uoloaded it. ONLY Posting it here in case one wants to make out some details in the background.

(add the following suffix to youtube's parent URL)

/watch?v=D46CoCKlvLQ Preferred to attach VID but UNLISTED VIDs can't be attached unless public for a period of time

[MrXentrix]

That commercial used to crack me up back in the 90s!