Brand Mix

Photo: tyger_lyllie (Flickr)

24 has gone carbon neutral. So, in between between car chases and terrorist tortures, Jack Bauer now finds time to make PSA announcements like this one. Says Jack/Kieffer: "Global warming is a crime for which we are all guilty."

This, to me, is an example of a good idea gone bad. An idea that might have made sense had it come from the corporation but which makes no sense when it comes from the show.

Just think of the show's audience. Not one that's generally sympathetic to the whole global warming thing to begin with and even less happy about having their show hijacked by this kind of issue. Here are just a few comment snippets left by 24 fans below an article in E! Online about 24's carbon-neutral story: "I am turning off 24 because Global Warming is contrary to everything 24 is supposed to be about" and " I'm very sorry to see that the "24" cast and crew are among the successfully deceived by the global warming fraud" and "Are you kidding me? What is Jack now going to be against water boarding? OH geez, DON'T YOU KNOW WHO YOUR AUDIENCE IS? Who cares that 24 is chasing after a myth?"

The problem that Fox had and failed to solve for is that there's no Fox corporate site for these kind of stories so press announcements have to either come from individual shows like 24 or from News Corporation, the parent company. Except that News Corporation itself only carries press releases about business and investor-related issues so it doesn't really fit there.

Were there a Fox corporate site, the angle that could have worked would have been along the lines of: 1) Fox is committed to doing its part to reduce global warming 2) To prove this commitment we've take our worst offender (24) and made it carbon neutral 3) This shows that anything is possible and we encourage other TV shows as well as the general public to do the same 4) Except 24 fans--you can do whatever you want.

Instead of which, fans are mad and Bauer's perimeters have been compromised.