| Pepsi’s Poker Ad
Diet Pepsi’s commercial featuring professional players Daniel Negreanu,
Scott Nguyen and Phil Hellmuth losing to a sweating cola can has created
ripples in the industry. "Poker was a real underground trend, but now it
has become so commercialized that the game's lost the gritty flavor that
made it attractive," said Ryan Berger, Euro RSCG's creative director of
buzz.
As has happened so many times in the past, once underground movements
gain mass acceptance, it typically signifies the beginning of the end.
"Poker is incredibly popular, and we're always looking to keep our
brands right in the middle of what's hot in pop culture," said a Diet
Pepsi spokesperson in a statement. But in terms of television ratings,
poker's downward spiral has already begun.
According to Nielsen Media Research, the audience for Bravo's "Celebrity
Poker Showdown" has fallen to an average of 134,000 viewers from a high
of 364,000 viewers in 2003. Similarly, ESPN's "Poker" has lost 193,000
viewers in the two years it has been on the air. And the Travel
Channel's "World Series of Poker" has seen its average audience drop to
464,000 this year from a peak of 583,000 in 2004.
"When too many people jump on the bandwagon, it reduces the value of the
programming and diminishes the game's buzz," said Marc Ganis, president
of SportsCorp Ltd. "Poker does have some life left in it, but at some
point it is going to have to be recast in a new light so it doesn't
become old news."
Just last week, a committee in the House of Representatives approved a
bill that would make it illegal to use credit cards as payment for
online gaming if the individual resides in a state where gambling is
illegal. This bill, if passed, would effectively cripple the $3
billion-a-year industry.
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