#manhattan cable

[scavengedluxury]

[fredseibertdotcom]

“Doesn’t Have MTV.”

Click here for my posts about MTV and here for Fred/Alan’s MTV work.

Doesn't Have MTV. [Party invitation 1982"] by Fred Seibert

It's hard to believe in the 21st century, but MTV's launch August 1, 1981 was not a signal of the channel's future success. In fact, many cable operators that thought that The Weather Channel, which dropped on the same day, would be much more successful. After all, didn't every newscast in America have a weather report? None of them featured a rock segment. Jeez.

After almost a year of contentious negotiations, the powerful Manhattan Cable (now part of Charter Communication's Spectrum offering) finally relented. They knew their potency, since most of the country's advertising agencies were headquartered in New York, and without a 24 hour presence in the market, it was harder to convince advertisers to take a chance; advertising was even more conservative than cable operators.

So, MTV was ecstatic, now we could actually see our own channel! And, maybe sell some more ads that we needed to stay alive. Seriously; we decided to throw a great celebration party, something MTV has excelled at for 41 years.

When it came to this invitation, we had finally gotten rid of our first advertising agency, Ogilvy & Mather, who thought that assigning a copywriter who wore a satin jacket meant that they could do a good job for us (and who were horrified that our MTV logo was an abomination because it broke seven of Ogilvy's 10 rules for a good trademark) and hired Dale Pon's LPG/Pon agency; they'd come up with "I Want MTV!" which hadn't dropped on the world yet. But we knew and decided we'd keep up our irreverent attitude in absolutely everything we did. Including party invites.

.....

MTV/Manhattan Cable Party Invitation Concept and Design: Warner Amex Satellite Entertainment Creative Services Creative Directors: Alan Goodman & Fred Seibert

Click here for my posts about MTV and here for Fred/Alan’s MTV work.

[considermycat]

Apropos of nothing, here’s Filthy the Dog - a recurring #earworm for the past quarter century... 

[gifsofthe80s]

Manhattan Cable TV Guide - 1983