Simply Living Jumps into the Local TV Show Scene

First, there was MassAppeal, channel 22’s new local television program. The show features two winning personalities, Nate and Ashley, who are professional, very attractive, and seem to be deeply interested in whatever the day’s topics might be. I joined some of my fellow business owners last fall when we did a series of programs on Mass Appeal about Deerfield as a Day Trip. It was fun cooking paninis on the show and some of the other Deerfield businesses said they saw a noticeable spike in visits as a result.  It’s a good idea to garner local advertising by creating programming you can sell to local businesses.

The owners of Channel 40 also must have been watching, because now they’ve hatched their own version of this ‘advertorial’ approach to television advertising. There is a new entry called Simply Living that brings perky hosts Maggie Pereiras  and John DiPietro (who also sell ads) together with local businesses, but it airs at night. Late at night.

It’s interesting how the management is approaching choosing their hosts. While Ch. 22 went with very young, attractive twenty-somethings, Simply Living takes a fiftyish guy in a suit paired with a very plain looking young woman host. She’s not the sparkly pretty Ashley but she looks just like somebody you work with or a typical ‘girl next door.’  She wears jeans and he sticks with the suit, like a lawyer or a stockbroker might wear.  Watching them run around Foxwoods Casino’s huge townhouse (where the ‘whales’ or biggest gamblers are allowed to stay in for free) was fun….he wanted to get back to the gambling tables, while she simply liked hanging out seeing the bathrooms with gold fixtures and the walls bedecked with priceless artwork.

Soon it will be time for Channel 3 to join the fray…stay tuned for their own version coming soon.