{"id":19657,"date":"2014-09-05T05:30:48","date_gmt":"2014-09-05T09:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=19657"},"modified":"2014-09-04T18:59:38","modified_gmt":"2014-09-04T22:59:38","slug":"taking-lassie-straight-to-merchandising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/09\/taking-lassie-straight-to-merchandising\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking Lassie straight to merchandising"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The Hollywood studio DreamWorks has the rights to Lassie, <\/em>the TV show about a heroic collie that is the third longest running TV drama of all time (behind Gunsmoke<\/em> and Law & Order<\/em>).\u00a0 But the studio thinks the character is too old-fashioned for a new TV show or movie.\u00a0 So the plan is to take Lassie straight to the true goal of making movie heroes these days:\u00a0 merchandising.<\/p>\n

Finding that Lassie is still beloved, she will be making appearances on TV shows, commercials, and a host of Lassie-related products.<\/p>\n

Do you agree that Lassie, while still popular, is unable to entertain children today?\u00a0 That children have to have explosions and superheroes; otherwise, they will be \u201cbored\u201d? \u00a0 That\u2019s the view expressed after the jump.<\/p>\n

From Lassie as Salesdog: One More Trip to the Well \u2013 NYTimes.com<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Studios typically revive old characters with new movies. But DreamWorks Animation dismissed that idea, aware that Lassie\u2019s rural escapades would have little relevance for viewers now keen on explosions, aliens and superheroes. Instead, the studio decided that the best hope for making money from Lassie was to make her a merchandising star, and it turned to a suitably old-fashioned tactic to prepare an onslaught of products next year: the publicity stunt.<\/p>\n

And so Lassie\u2019s calendar this summer has been filled with coast-to-coast appearances. Vanity Fair recently agreed to do a story about Lassie\u2019s beauty regimen. (\u201cShe\u2019s like the Kate Middleton of animals, all poise and perfect hair,\u201d the publication said.) The collie\u2019s new publicists brought her to People magazine to make a video; Lassie helped select cover photos and sat patiently while accessories editors draped her with jewelry.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnlike everyone else in Hollywood, Lassie is much bigger in person,\u201d Ryan Seacrest told listeners when the dog stopped by his radio show.<\/p>\n

Slick promotion is a Hollywood specialty, of course, even for hard-to-sell products (like bad films). But DreamWorks Animation has a lot riding on the furry back of this 76-year-old character. The studio, which has lost money for the last two quarters, is scrambling to expand into merchandising to make itself less dependent on volatile movie releases. Experts say that in success, Lassie could generate tens of millions in added revenue. . . .<\/p>\n

Unsure of how best to freshen the musty franchise, the studio commissioned market research, which to its delight found that Lassie retained an 83 percent \u201cbrand awareness\u201d among Americans; words like \u201cloyal,\u201d \u201chero\u201d and \u201cheartwarming\u201d were most often associated with the character.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe realized that Lassie has an authenticity that makes her a merchandising holy grail,\u201d Mr. Francis said. He should know: Before joining DreamWorks Animation in 2013, Mr. Francis was in charge of marketing for Target, where he was responsible for creating Bullseye, the retailer\u2019s white bull terrier-cum-salesdog.<\/p>\n

There are no plans for a new Lassie movie or TV series. Mr. Francis said the brand studies convinced him that such endeavors were not needed. Filmed entertainment is also expensive, and the character would have to be updated, though perhaps not to the point of wearing a cape.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would love to believe that modern children would sit down and watch lovely Lassie frolic with Timmy in the meadow,\u201d said Jeanine Basinger, a film historian. \u201cBut I fear they would get awfully bored unless she turned into a superdog that blows things up, and that would be sacrilege.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Hollywood studio DreamWorks has the rights to Lassie, the TV show about a heroic collie that is the third longest running TV drama of all time (behind Gunsmoke and Law & Order).\u00a0 But the studio thinks the character is too old-fashioned for a new TV show or movie.\u00a0 So the plan is to take […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,45],"tags":[3298,3297,3299],"class_list":["post-19657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movies","category-television","tag-childrens-entertainment","tag-lassie","tag-merchandising"],"yoast_head":"\nTaking Lassie straight to merchandising<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Hollywood studio DreamWorks has the rights to Lassie, the TV show about a heroic collie that is the third longest running TV drama of all time (behind\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/09\/taking-lassie-straight-to-merchandising\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Taking Lassie straight to merchandising\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Hollywood studio DreamWorks has the rights to Lassie, the TV show about a heroic collie that is the third longest running TV drama of all time (behind\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/09\/taking-lassie-straight-to-merchandising\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cranach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-09-05T09:30:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-09-04T22:59:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/09\/taking-lassie-straight-to-merchandising\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/09\/taking-lassie-straight-to-merchandising\/\",\"name\":\"Taking Lassie straight to merchandising\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-09-05T09:30:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-09-04T22:59:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\"},\"description\":\"The Hollywood studio DreamWorks has the rights to Lassie, the TV show about a heroic collie that is the third longest running TV drama of all time (behind\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/09\/taking-lassie-straight-to-merchandising\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/09\/taking-lassie-straight-to-merchandising\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/09\/taking-lassie-straight-to-merchandising\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Taking Lassie straight to merchandising\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\",\"name\":\"Cranach\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\",\"name\":\"Gene Veith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gene Veith\"},\"description\":\"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. He has authored over 25 books on Christianity and culture, literature, classical education, and theology. Dr. Veith previously held academic and editorial roles at Concordia University Wisconsin and WORLD Magazine. A respected voice in Lutheran and classical education circles, he holds a Ph.D. in English and several honorary doctorates. He and his wife, Jackquelyn, live in St. Louis and have three children and twelve grandchildren.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\",\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gene_Edward_Veith\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/author\/geneveith\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Taking Lassie straight to merchandising","description":"The Hollywood studio DreamWorks has the rights to Lassie, the TV show about a heroic collie that is the third longest running TV drama of all time (behind","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/09\/taking-lassie-straight-to-merchandising\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Taking Lassie straight to merchandising","og_description":"The Hollywood studio DreamWorks has the rights to Lassie, the TV show about a heroic collie that is the third longest running TV drama of all time (behind","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/09\/taking-lassie-straight-to-merchandising\/","og_site_name":"Cranach","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/","article_published_time":"2014-09-05T09:30:48+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-09-04T22:59:38+00:00","author":"Gene Veith","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Gene Veith","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/09\/taking-lassie-straight-to-merchandising\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/09\/taking-lassie-straight-to-merchandising\/","name":"Taking Lassie straight to merchandising","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-09-05T09:30:48+00:00","dateModified":"2014-09-04T22:59:38+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1"},"description":"The Hollywood studio DreamWorks has the rights to Lassie, the TV show about a heroic collie that is the third longest running TV drama of all time (behind","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/09\/taking-lassie-straight-to-merchandising\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/09\/taking-lassie-straight-to-merchandising\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/09\/taking-lassie-straight-to-merchandising\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Taking Lassie straight to merchandising"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/","name":"Cranach","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1","name":"Gene Veith","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Gene Veith"},"description":"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. He has authored over 25 books on Christianity and culture, literature, classical education, and theology. Dr. Veith previously held academic and editorial roles at Concordia University Wisconsin and WORLD Magazine. A respected voice in Lutheran and classical education circles, he holds a Ph.D. in English and several honorary doctorates. He and his wife, Jackquelyn, live in St. Louis and have three children and twelve grandchildren.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gene_Edward_Veith"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/author\/geneveith\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1281"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19657\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}