HBO, Deep Focus Solicit Spoken Word for “The Wire”
While it serves a consistent platter of successful programs, HBO hasn’t always replicated the commercial triumphs of shows like The Sopranos. Case in point, “The Wire”, arguably the most critically-adored series ever entrenched in the cable network’s roster (Slate.com, for one, has christened it “the greatest show ever”). But throughout its four previous seasons, the complex show’s media adulation hasn’t necessarily translated into mainstream acceptance.
But interactive agency Deep Focus, which has successfully implemented extensive online promotions for HBO hits like Entourage, is helping the network change all that. “It’s been a strong performer for HBO, but hasn’t necessarily been the big crossover hit that Sex and the City, the Sopranos or Entourage became,” Deep Focus CEO Ian Schafer tells ADOTAS. “It’s very complicated.”
An intense police procedural drama that gives viewers the hero and villain perspective while blurring the lines between both, The Wire takes place each season in a different social environment in and around Baltimore.
The fifth season, which debuted on September 10th, is no different. “This season focuses primarily on the education system,” Schafer explains. “If you do watch this series, you will notice that many of the characters that you’re used to seeing in every episode are not in these episodes. As a matter of fact, there are very few characters that make the leap from the previous seasons into this one. But because this is about education, education and education reform tend to be an issue that polarizes a lot of people, where that people feel very strongly and passionate about.”
Deep Focus in turn is taking this hot-button issue of education to the streets, literally. Beginning last Friday, the agency began soliciting slam poets, hip-hop and freestyle artists across the country to speak out about how they were educated by submitting videos of their artistic expression—effectively parlaying user-generated content into a savvy urban campaign. “One of the reasons why spoken word performance has really taken off over the last few years in America is because it’s the poetry of the streets,” says Schafer. “People write this poetry because they want to express themselves and they’re expressing themselves about topics that are very personal to them.”
He continues, “Because the fact that people do feel passionate about [education], we wanted to capture that passion and galvanize audiences around this particular issue and let them sound off about it. It’s something that typically hits close to home for a lot of people. Everyone for the most part has been through the education system here in America. But not everyone has been through the inner-city educational system, which is different because they’re not usually given all the same resources or chances for success that suburban educational systems have.”
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