Stuart Elliott: Blue-Chip Brands Bid Farewell to Jon Stewart

In an era when corporate synergy often dictates what39s deemed newsworthy MSNBC a cable channel outside the Viacom orbit devoted a onehour special quotJon Stewart Has Left the Buildingquot to his departureStewart39s leave taking after 16 years dubbed JonVoyage for social sharing triggered an outpouring of fond farewells from all strata of the media ecosystem from an editorial in the Daily News that saluted him as quota major figure in the democratic processquot to a paean in the New Yorker that led the Talk of the Town section and was written by the magazine39s august editor David RemnickSure there were detractors Stewart was labeled quotthe patron saint of liberal smugnessquot in a New York Times opinion piece and derided on Twitter as quotObama39s boytoyquot who failed in his mission against the right wing He sort of agreed with the latter critique wryly declaring on his penultimate episode that except for perhaps the Mets quotthe world is demonstrably worse than when I startedquotThere was something else drawing considerable attention on that nexttolast episode two commercials from Arby39s long a target of Stewart39s mockery for the poor quality of its food One spot sardonically reprised some of his most strident japes quotTechnically it39s foodquot in a supercut set to the quotGolden Girlsquot theme song quotThank You for Being a Friendquot and the other introduced a cornedbeef sandwich in his honorThe commercials generated quotincredible social buzzquot according to Adweek and the following evening the chief executive officer of Arby39s Paul Brown joined highprofile Stewart targets over the years such as Wolf Blitzer John McCain and Bill O39Reilly who got to wish him good riddance in a compendium of clips quotit39s like your TV threw up on your facequot Brown said of Stewart39s oeuvre A phalanx of deliverers bearing meals from Arby39s even turned up in a video narrated by Stewart offering a humorous look at what it was like working for him at quotThe Daily Showquot officesThat Arby39s chose to engage so vociferous a critic rather than ignore him fighting snark with snark is an example of the legacy that Stewart leaves behind He has changed the landscape not only for entertainers but also for advertisersFor one thing it39s now considered clever to do what Arby39s did and employ sarcasm as a marketing tool adopting a tone of voice that in the past was deemed too dismissive or condescending for Madison Avenue Arby39s scored by smothering Stewart in a warm embrace well as warm as an Arby39s sandwich under a heat lampArby39s also demonstrated how mainstream bluechip brands no longer shy from sponsoring content espousing provocative points of view which they once avoided for fears that consumers would consider such fare too controversial or polarizing The list of sponsors of the Stewart finale included AnheuserBusch InBev ATampampT General Motors Hulu Hyundai PepsiCo Priceline Group Samsung TMobile Time Warner and UnileverIn a delicious twist there even were commercials for a pair of movies being distributed by the 20th Century Fox division of 21st Century Fox which also owns what may be Stewart39s No 1 nemesis Fox News Channel Politics may make strange bedfellows but these days so does engaging content even if it turns off a considerable segment of the population That39s especially true when those who like the content in question are as attractive an audience as Stewart39s was according to data from MagnaGlobal his quotDaily Showquot viewers were more affluent than the folks who watch other latenight programmingAnd speaking of affluent Viacom charged a pretty penny for commercial time in the Stewart finale about 230000 for each 30second spot according to reports compared with a recent typical rate of around 46000 The episode drew by preliminary Nielsen counts an estimated 35 million viewers the secondbiggest total in quotDaily Showquot historyThat figure of course doesn39t include those watching the episode online which brings up another Stewart legacy helping pave the way for the new methods of watching television that eschew the TV set A show like his was a perfect source of the short snackable clips that people on PCs laptops smartphones and other devices prefer to peruseStewart leaves for his successor Trevor Noah a daunting list of accomplishments to try matching or surpassing Noah39s journey begins Sept 28 in what will be one of the biggest shows of the new fall season along with Donald Trump in quotThe Celebrity Apprentice Candidatequotamp160amp160amp160amp160amp160amp160amp160amp160amp160amp160Stuart39s commentaries will return on September 9thThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecom management or associated bloggers

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Stuart Elliott: Blue-Chip Brands Bid Farewell to Jon Stewart

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