MTV's 'Skins': Who Advertised Last Night?
After six major sponsors pull out, MTV fills air with network promos, direct-response ads for stretch-mark cream and movie studio commercials.
MTV's Skins has already endured an advertiser exodus that has seen Taco Bell, Subway, Wrigley, General Motors, Schick Hydro and H&R Block come out against the show. And that defection was evident during the commercial breaks for the second episode of the show on Monday night, which featured heavy rotation of promos for MTV reality series including Teen Mom 2, the upcoming second season of My Life as Liz and I Used to Be Fat.
The episode, which centered on the lesbian identity of Tea (played by Sofia Black D'Elia), also featured MTV's public service campaign against digital bullying. But the most prevalent advertisers by a wide margin were movie studios. There were multiple spots for Columbia Pictures' Adam Sandler/Jennifer Aniston comedy Just Go With It, the Leighton Meester thriller The Roommate, DreamWorks SKG's I Am Number Four, Anthony Hopkins' horror film The Rite, the Liam Neeson thriller Unknown, Millennium Films' The Mechanic and James Cameron's 3D pic Sanctum.
MTV has declined to address the Skins controversy directly, reiterating an earlier statement about "an ongoing dialogue" with advertisers and expressing confidence that Skins "will continue to connect with the audience it was created for and that advertisers will take advantage of the opportunity to reach them."
The second episode also featured multiple spots for hyper-caffeinated beverage Red Bull and acne treatment Zeno. Gaming companies, known for following young audiences in spite of controversial programming, were represented by a single spot for PlayStation's Dead Space 2. But there was a telltale sign of the well-documented advertiser defection from Skins: multiple direct-response ads for Celtrixia, a topical cream that purports to banish stretch marks.
