Friday, March 28, 2008

Biodome the Sequel!


Epic Records and Dr.Pepper have teamed up to promote the band Cartel and their sophomore CD. The marketing stunt, "Dr.Pepper Band in a Bubble" will film beginning May 24 the band living in a giant bubble located near the Hudson River while they record their album, which will "burst" the final day June 12. The film will turn into a 4 episode series on MTV and and webcams will show live footage on the www.drpepperbubble.com Cartel understands the criticism they'll get as "sellouts" for the hokey promotion, but point out the difficulty of releasing a successful sophomore album. They had a successful first album "Chroma" and played on the Warped Tour, but a failed sophomore album is known death wish to the band. Cartel wants to do what they can to help prevent this and believe this project will help them stick out in a sea of bands. While the idea of watching people in a confined space make me feel like a total creeper, the difference of this stunt, "is intended to give fans a first-time, real-time look into the making of the band's newest album."
By MTV showing the episodes, does that mean its going to have a Real World meets Making the Band kind of vibe? With P. Diddy-esque dude hovering in the background giving demands and the Real World "disease" that makes everyone in the house go totally nuts? Cause that would be sweet to watch. But in all serious, when I first saw the news article, I was upset to see it was about Cartel, whose music i've liked for a while, but i'm getting used to seeing bands I like endorsed by large companies like Honda Civic's Fall Out Boy tour. I understand why Cartel agreed, its natural for people to want promotions at their job, so why not them? If living in a giant bubble for 3 weeks help sales of their CD or give them more fans, fine. great. But seeing the members of my favorite bands like performance monkeys of the big sponsor throwing their brand in my face every 3 seconds, it's just...a little...disheartening.

1 comment:

Kim Gregson said...

1 interesting post - 5 points