Usher Performs “Daddy’s Home” On MTV’s Upfront
This video comes from MTV Behind the Screen, the network’s presentation to advertisers at New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom last week. It was the opening pitch of the basic cable Upfront season but one not overtly positioned as an Upfront event. Rather, the very early timing (February 2) came across as an important acknowledgement that television is a 52-week-a-year business in all ways.
MTV decided to let its talent tell its story, a smart move considering the dizzying diversity of its current and upcoming programs. This approach seemed to play very well with the crowd of noticeably young media buyers and planners that filled the room, along with some of the industry’s senior-most media agency executives. Usher opened the show with several songs, his performance enhanced by four provocative female dancers. Quest Crew, the winning group from Season 3 of America’s Best Dance Crew, brought the house down at the end. In between, it was all talent and series creators talking about their shows, with minimal hosting chores handled by MTV News personality Sway. The energy throughout was palpable.
The messages put forth about individual shows and the network overall were consistently clear and concise. They all reinforced the fact that, despite formidable competition from the usual online suspects, MTV is still a driving force in popular culture as it relates to young people, and it is still second to none at reflecting all aspects of current youth culture.
It was interesting to hear Usher at the opening of the event and Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy at its mid-point wax nostalgic about watching MTV when they were young. Their hindsight enthusiasm was all about the music and artists they saw on the network that entertained and inspired them, rather than unscripted series programming of the kind that largely defines MTV today. Usher recalled the thrill he felt when he saw his first video “on the same channel” he had seen Michael Jackson’s Thriller on many years earlier.
