Fred/Alan MTV Network Advertising Collection, cu.ft; 4 RB; 3 f/o

Transcription

1 NMAH AC 453 Scope and Content Note Fred/Alan MTV Network Advertising Collection, cu.ft; 4 RB; 3 f/o The collection consists of advertising and promotional materials created by the Fred/Alan advertising agency between 1981 and 1992 for the MTV network, which includes Music Television, Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, VH-1, and Ha! Comedy Network. Also included are advertising and promotional material for the Disney Channel, the Movie Channel, Showtime, Home Office and other Fred/Alan clients including Miller Beer, General Foods and Myers Rum. The materials demonstrate the intersection between American popular culture and advertising in several ways. First, because many of the advertisements were designed for trade publications of the cable television and advertising industries, they reveal some of the thinking behind the cable television industry's attempts to establish and stabilize its market during the 1980s, a decade which witnessed the emergence and spectacular rise of cable programming. Secondly, because MTV Networks began as a commercial proposition to attract a difficult-to-reach teenage audience and later, to capture the baby boom generation, the collection also provides evidence of the 1980s trend toward market segmentation. Finally, both in content and style, MTV Networks pioneered a new aesthetic which has had repercussions throughout American popular culture, and particularly in television programming and advertising. The material is organized into three series. Series 1 contains Print Advertising and Promotional Materials. These materials are organized into eight subseries. Subseries A: Music Television, Subseries B: Nickelodeon, Subseries C: Nick at Nite, Subseries D: Video Hits-1, Subseries E: Ha! Comedy Network, Subseries F: The Disney Channel, 1981 Subseries G: The Movie Channel, 1982 Subseries H: Fred/Alan and other clients, Series 2 contains Videotaped Commercials. Series 3 continas Photographic Materials arranged in to two subseries. Subseries A: 2x2 color slides Subseries B: still photos

2 Provenance The materials were donated to the Archives Center in June 1992 by the Fred Seibert, President of the Fred/Alan advertising agency in New York City.

3 Series 1: Print Advertising and Promotional Material Subseries A: Music Television (MTV), ) 1 1 MTV - promotional material (39) 2 MTV - promotional material (10) - ad slicks (45) - the Official Magazine of the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards 3 MTV - promotional ephemera (17) 2 3 MTV, The Movie Channel, Nickelodeon - 24-page promotional brochure 3 1 MTV - ad slicks (9) 4 3 MTV and VH-1 (Video Hits-1) - ad slicks (4) 4 7 MTV - promotional material (2) - ad slicks (60) O/S 1 MTV - transit ads (3) Subseries B: Nickelodeon, Nickelodeon - promotional material (23) - ad slicks (20) 5 Nickelodeon

4 - The Nickelodeon Nifty Fifty book (marketing ideas) - research and programming guide 3 3 Nickelodeon - promotional material (15) 4 2 Nickelodeon - ad slicks (16) O/S 1 Nickelodeon - - transit ads (3) Subseries C: Nick at Nite, Nick at Nite - promotional material (2) - ad slicks (73) O/S 1 Nick at Nite - posters (4) Series 1: Print Advertising and Promotional Material Subseries D: Video Hits-1 (VH-1), VH-1 - Billboard advertising supplement (1) - ad slicks (29) O/S 1 VH-1 - transit ad (1) Subseries E: Ha! Comedy Network, Ha! Comedy Network - promotional material (6) - ad slicks (4) 4 1 Ha! Comedy Network

5 - promotional material (1) - ad slicks (18) O/S 2 Ha! Comedy Network - posters (5) - ad slick (1) Subseries F: The Disney Channel, The Disney Channel - 20-page promotional brochure Subseries G: The Movie Channel, The Movie Channel - promotional material (3) Subseries H: Fred/Alan, Fred/Alan (agency) - promotional package - promotional material (1) 4 4 Fred/Alan (agency) - ad slicks (3) 4 5 Fred/Alan (other clients) - promotional material for Myers's Rum Video Network (1) - "Sassy" ad slicks (2) - "WHN 1050" ad slicks (3) "USA Today The Television Show" ad slicks (3) - Fred/Alan Mtv directory - Fred/Alan Nickelodeon and Nick at Nite directory

6 Series 2: Videotaped Commercials * Reel Contents 5 1 The Movie Channel (TMC), Showtime (SHO), Playboy 3 SHO, Home Office (HBO), TMC 4 TMC, MCA Records (MCA), SHO, Music Television (MTV), Video Hits-1 (VH-1) 5 SHO, TMC, Lifetime (LIFE), Miller Beer (MILLER), Epic Portrait Association (EPIC) 6 RCA Records (RCA), LIFE, A&M, TMC, SWATCH, CATES, SHO, TOMMY, Nickelodeon (NICK), The Museum of Broadcasting (MUS/BRO), Marathon Gasolines (MPC), Island Visual Arts (ISLAND) Note: The Fred/Alan listing includes RCA, LIFE, A&M, TMC, SWATCH, CATES, and TOMMY which do not appear on the reel. 7 SHO, NICK, Houston Knights (HOU/KN), Nick at Nite (NAN), MPC, VH-1, LDC, 6 8 LDC (music videos - some include lyrics) 9 LDC, MTV, TV Heaven 41 (KXLI), Chauncey Street Productions, Inc. (CSP) GENERAL FOODS-Fruity Pebbles Cereal, NICK 10 LDC, MTV, GTG, NAN, BMG (Ads for MTV), Kent Co. (Ads for Sh-Boom Night Club), Myer's Rum Video Network (MTP) NICK, PERSONICS Note: The Fred/Alan listing includes GTG, which does not appear on the reel. 11 LDC, Ha! Comedy Network (HA!) Tapes 2 and 12 are missing * See Appendix

7 Series 3: Photographic Materials Subseries A: 2x2 color slides 7 1 MTV 2 MTV 3 MTV 4 Nickelodeon 5 Nickelodeon 6 Nick at Nite 8 1 VH-1 2 Ha! Comedy Network 3 The Movie Channel 4 Fred/Alan 5 Showtime 6 Cinemax slides 7 Lifetime, Home Office, The Fixx, MCA 8 KXLI-TV Heaven slides 9 Myers Rum Video Network, Songtech, NCTV Videocenter 10 QMI, Fox Broadcasting Company, WYNY A & M Records-Amy Grant slides 12 Epic, USA Today Television, General Foods (Pebbles), Personics 13 Tommy Boy Records 14 WHN 1050, Tokyo MTV 15 ZOT, Times Mirror Cable Series 3: Photographic materials Subseries B: still photographs 8 16 A & M Records-Amy Grant, The Fixx, Nickelodeon