Hasta La Creative!

Thirteen, a PBS station in New York City, continues to insist that its programming is better than the dreck you find elsewhere on cable—by inventing more bogus ads for reality shows that don't exist. Back in May, the NYC office of CHI & Partners rolled out posters for three such shows. And now, it's got three more for your guilty pleasure—Clam Kings, Long Island Landscapers and Meet the Tanners. I'd probably watch all of them, or at least pause, intrigued, on my way up the dial. "The fact you thought this was a real TV show says a lot about the state of TV," the promo say abruptly, just as you're getting drawn in. The tagline is, "Support quality programming," and the campaign is using the hashtag #TVgonewrong.

The company has begun talks with major media companies about licensing TV channels, according to people with knowledge of the meetings.

The deal, which puts new episodes on BET eight days after their initial showing, demonstrates that show owners are willing to consider new models for syndication.

From Arnold Worldwide comes “Runnovation Anthem,” a spot for New Balance that depicts people running in different environments interspersed with cuts of what appear to be acts of science. There’s also a very loud musical number, which one would suppose is the titular anthem, despite not being very anthemic. The song is so utterly terrifying, in fact, that it’s easy to imagine all of these people running away from a masked pursuer who chases them while playing this song full-blast on a JVC Kaboom Box held above his or her head.

With an introduction to the idea of “Runnovation” (running + innovation for those playing at home) out of the way, the campaign will unfold into three different storylines across media platforms, with the first focusing on a grassroots fitness group called “November Project.” If you’re interested in watching some suburban white dudes run around outside and yell “fuck yeah” for a while, watch this video:

Did you enjoy watching those people vomit? Yeah, you probably did, you sicko. Credits after the jump.
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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Colin Firth is a solid choice for any ad. But a 12-foot-tall version of the Oscar winner rising from a lake, wet shirt sticking to his chiseled physique, is marketing gold. UKTV made the latter happen in London's Hyde Park this week—installing a giant statue of Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice, as portrayed by Firth in the BBC's 1995 version, in the middle of a lake to promote its new TV channel, Drama. It's a fitting image to choose, as that scene was named the most memorable British TV drama moment of all time in a recent survey.

Three sculptors spent two months designing, constructing and painting the fiberglass model."We took Colin Firth's famous lake scene as a starting point for creating Mr. Darcy, but we also read the book and looked at performances of the brooding hero by Matthew Macfadyen, David Rintoul and even Laurence Olivier," says lead sculptor Toby Crowther. "The challenge for us was capturing the spirit of Darcy as handsome and noble but also aloof and proud. The Mr. Darcy sculpture is a real mix of the many portrayals of Jane Austen's most famous hero."

The statue will head next to Scarborough beach in North Yorkshire before finding a semi-permanent home at Lyme Park in Cheshire, where the scene was was originally filmed. It will remain there until next February. The campaign, including the survey, was orchestrated by Taylor Herring PR. Check out the case study here.

Some “Big Brother” contestants who are using ethnic and sexist slurs have stirred up viewers and the CBS network.

As companies like Tribune and Gannett buy up local television stations, the goal is not transformation, but leverage, using size to cut better deals with distributors and suppliers.

The authorities shuttered some television stations, and the tone of some state news media also seemed to shift, to reflect the interests of those now in charge.

On “Today” Paula Deen, the tarnished queen of Southern cooking, offered a contrite defense to charges that she has used racist epithets.

The Tribune Company agreed on Monday to buy 19 local television stations for about $2.7 billion, becoming one of the nation’s biggest commercial TV station owners.