t was funny to see the new logo and show name. Obviously, it was too late to change the narration from Charlie Murphy as he repeatedly referred to the show as 'Hot Ghetto Mess'.It also seems obvious that BET struggled to sell advertising time on the show. 80% of the commercial time was filled with promos of other BET shows.
One of the oddest moments during the show was a promo of an upcoming BET interview with Oprah Winfrey. I tend to believe that Oprah won't be happy to see her image and words used as a backdrop for 'Hot Ghetto Mess'.
However, t
here were three fools who had the audacity to spend their corporate dollars to sponsor the pilot show. My hope is that everyone reading this blog post will take a moment to make a phone call or send an email to these corporate sponsors to let them know your disappointment. Here are the three sponsors that chose to disrespect the African American community by spending our money (as customers of their products) on this mess.The largest sponsor for the pilot show appeared to be ASCENDANT Pictures. The company is an independent film development, production, finance and foreign distribution company who paid BET to air multiple commercials about their upcoming movie called Who's Your Caddy. ASCENDANT PICTURES is run by Chris Roberts and Christopher Eberts. You can reach them right now by phone (310.288-4600), email (info@ascendantpictures.com), fax (310.288-4601) or mail (9350 Civic Center Drive, Suite 110; Beverly Hills, CA 90210).
A second HGM sponsor was the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau. I was very disappointed to see one of my favorite cities... Detroit ... advertising on HGM. I have to believe that it will not take much to get them to remove their sponsorship from future shows with our calls or letters. My suggestion is that you place the call right now ... leave a message if it is after-hours when you are reading this message ... to Angela Gillis at (313) 202-1973 or you can email her at agillis@visitdetroit.com. Another unique way to get leverage on the DMCVB is to contact some of their influential members. You can click here to identify some of the business members. Share with them your disappointment in their decision to use membership dues in such a disrespectful manner to the Black community.
The final HGM sponsor is an Ohio-based company --> The Original Mattress Factory located at 4930 State Road; Cleveland OH 44134. The founder and president is Ron Trzcinski. According to Trzcinski: "Profit is a report card, a scorecard, a won-lost record. I don't sit in the mattress factory and say, 'How can we make a profit?' I ask, 'How can we do a better job? How can we make people want to come in? How can we help people see the value?' If you do all those things, you will make a profit." Let's reach out to Ron to let him know that African Americans are not interested in buying a mattress from a company that is so disrespectful to people of African descent. You can click here to email Ron or you can reach him by phone (216.661-8388) or send him a fax (216.661-2337).
It is time for us to turn our consumer buying potential into action. I urge you to pick up your cell phone and make three phone calls right now ... before you do anything else ... let these fools know that we simply won't accept this nonsense any longer. State Farm and Home Depot did the right thing.
Let's help ASCENDANT Pictures, Detroit Convention Bureau and The Original Mattress Factory do the right thing as well.
14 comments:
Gina put an a whoopin on bet. She also put an a whoopin on Jam as well. Girlfreind has taken of most of the obscene pitures from her website the just sad section with kids has been totally revamped. She took down the picture of the little girl with the joint in her mouth.
My guesse is this her lawyer told her that since she didnt have permission to use those photos she took them down because she didnt want to get sued.
Mark - I concur that Gina did a wonderful job in leading this effort. However, Gina needs all of us to pull our weight as we work to get the remaining advertisers to think twice about support HGM (or similiar shows) in the future. I hope you will make a call or send an email to one or more of the companies listed in this post.
peace, Villager
Out of all this mess, it was the pictures of the kids that set me off. The media never brought this out. I contacted the Washington Post reporter who interviewed her, and he saw the pictures. Then he turns around and did another interview today, and still no mention. This was the story that could have ended all this mess, and brought this whole house of cards down.
I am glad that bloggers are coming together to try and put an end to black people mariginalizing other black people. For too long we have put up with this "Coon-Tastic" approach from BET and enough is enough. They have the nerve to have a show called "We got to do Better" no BET needs to take its on advice and do better!!!!
I think you guys successfully killed it. The show sucked. It had no edge and no scandal. You should consider that sometimes you have to outrage people to shake things up, but that will never happen with people like you around.
As far as Ascendant Pictures goes; I already wasn’t going to see that unimaginative, trite, “cool young black people show up corny, cagey white people” cliché, of a lame ass excuse for a movie called Who’s Your Caddy anyway. But I’ll probably call anyway and tell them that I was going to see it, but now I’m not – lol!
Villager, I want to thank you for taking the time to consistently put together information like this. This is very necessary. And I’m going to bite your post again, but probably not on blackperspective.net
I'm sorry not to respond directly to your post but I have an important question. Someone sent me a video called :How not to get your Ass kicked by the Police. It's narrated by Chris Rock. Have you ever seen it? I wonder what you think of it. If you haven't seen it I can send it to you.
oh wow....the original mattress factory is 20 min from me....what an idiot.
excellent post. I will be sure to make my calls immediately.
thank you for the update, villager.
peace
Linda - No question that the traditional media was slow off the mark on this story ... and the Washington Post was biased in favor of BET and Jam Donaldson (judging from the stories they published and the podcast that they hosted earlier in the week. We have to persevere!
Native Son - All I can say is Amen brother!
Christopher - Thank you for the kind words. I agree with your assessment ... the show sucked bigtime!
Yobachi - Did you make the call to Ascendent as planned?
DC Speaks - Any feedback from your calls or emails?
Teach - I look forward to seeing the Chris Rock piece that you're talking about.
peace, Villager
great post. i am about to send some emails. this has got to stop!
I stopped watching the Negro channel all together. It's a shame. Now I do believe Charlie Murphy needs his own show but this!! C'mon Charlie, But I'm thinking the same people who hate this show would love Friday the Animated series which in my book is the same as HGM. I'm going ot see if it's on youtube.
isn't Charlie murphy's soon to be sister in law one of the producers (along with Bob Johnson's Our Stories shingle) of Who's The Caddy? (a remake of Caddyshack featuring black people)?
http://www.eurweb.com/story/eur35400.cfm
as an update....i have recieved no response to my calls to Ron.
I'm not surprised , but the calls keep going out.
Muze - Did you get any responses from the emails that you sent last week?
Blogxilla - I agree with your assessment of Charlie's talent. Methinks that he simply lives off his resemblance to his brother!
non-Star Jones - I didn't make the connection between Charlie and Tracey Edmonds. Good catch!
DC Speaks - Asante sana for your persistence!
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