The dynamic duo that is Jono and Ben can be found everywhere in the media these days. When they’re not on their own show, they’re in the news for attempting to ride a banana boat across the Cook Strait, or some other such shenanigan. We caught up with the pair to find out what media they consume when they’re not in it.
In the build up to Jono and Ben’s return to television this Friday, MediaWorks has released a new campaign, which puts the dynamic duo in a bunch of different cinematic settings to reflect the show’s themes. The campaign is in conjunction with another for fellow Friday night favourite, 7 Days.
Another day, another step towards assured glory for the All Blacks, and another few attempts to squeeze some more blood out of the rugby stone. And this week’s winner of The Big Game, a prestigious award dished out by StopPress to the best example of desperate euphemism usage from non-sponsors hoping to ride the attention train, goes to Cadbury for its classy Photoshopping. PLUS: rugby fever from Beats by Dre and Barkers.
We’ve all had that moment, as we tell our friends about a great song we’ve heard, plug in our phones/laptops into some sort of speaker system, push play on our Spotify as we stare at them with a look of anticipation and glee on our faces (like above photo) while we wait for the song to start, but it doesn’t.
In continuation of its ‘Imagine’ campaign online, Lotto Powerball enlisted the help of a hypnotist to trick a few Kiwi celebs into thinking they’d won the big one, then asked them what they would do with the money.
To keep their show in the public consciousness before its return to television, Jono and Ben have reached out to their Facebook fans to choose the show’s new motto. Suggestions have been pouring in on their page with a good mixture of the hilarious, the sweet and the outright offensive. They also asked some school children what they think should be featured on the show, their answers are priceless. PLUS: fellow MediaWorks comedian Dai Henwood adds L’Oreal Paris to his list of endorsers.
The Jono and Ben team penetrate layers in a recent skit about New Zealand drink-driving ads, which becomes a parody of a drink-driving ad of a parody of a drink-driving ad (we could go on).
As the t-shirt says, Jono and Ben at Ten is like Hamish and Andy for people who hate Australians. Now the band of merry pranksters has been moved up the Friday night batting order from a half-hour slot at 10pm to an hour slot at 7.30pm. And they’ve celebrated the promotion with a clip showing some of the Facebook feedback that decision has generated.
TV3 celebrated its 25th birthday a little bit early last Friday night with a one hour special from the Jono and Ben at 10 (or, in this special case Jono and Ben at 7.30) crew. And, as per usual, there were a few gems in there, with its throwback to 1989-style media, pies in faces and entertaining questions for some of the channel’s media personalities from Guy Williams.
Around the world, advertisers are trying to involve their audiences in the marketing, whether it’s Wendy’s love songs, Airbnb’s Hollywood & Vines, Newcastle’s crappy crowdsourcing or, locally, Give it a V and Feel Tip Top. TV shows have long talked about doing the same, and many of them have taken fandom into the realm of social media. But increasingly it seems broadcasters are not content with audiences passively absorbing content and are trying to convince them to get involved. So how’s that working out for them?
The robots are here. And they’re increasingly doing the jobs of humans. Recently, there’s been a bit of chat over AP’s decision to get computers to write some business stories and writing in Wired last year Kevin Kelly surmised that “before the end of this century, 70 percent of today’s occupations will likewise be replaced by automation”, just as they were over the industrial revolution. Jono and Ben took this idea and ran with it for a recent skit that shows expendable labour getting their own back on technology. And with some studies showing TV is still very strong and others showing ‘screen-stacking’ is increasingly prevalent, there’s a rather self-aware scene at the end.
In a pair of videos unveiled at the Radio Rewired press conference, radio personalities are depicted spoofing various aspects of the industry in a classroom setting.
It’s been a big month for the Kiwi comedy scene, with the International Comedy Festival running room 24 April to 18 May and Seven Days recently celebrating its 150th episode. And throughout this period, MediaWorks has gotten behind the talent on its various shows via a series of promotional pushes. Central to TV3’s campaign are a collection of idents that have been released as part of the ‘Your home of comedy’ campaign that is currently running on the channel.
Jono and Ben recently referred to the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) by its old acronym LTSA. In reponse to this verbal misstep, Anthony Frith, the media manager at NZTA, sent the pair a sensational email.