When it comes to pimpin new television shows, my luck has been pretty bad lately. Remember Love Monkey? Thought so. But I never learn so here goes another. I tivo’d the latest episode of “The Loop” on Fox. It was hilarious, and it peaked my interest because this episode had a branding slant. The basic concept of the show is the battle between having your first real job after college and still wanting to party with your friends that don’t work.

The lead character Sam (his boss calls him Thesis) gets hired as the youngest executive at a fictional airline because of his college thesis on the airline industry. The first episode starts with his boss Russ, saying the airline industry is sinking fast and they need to enter the low-cost segment.

An older executive presents his plan for a hip, younger target, low-cost airline. He goes on to say the research has shown that the youth market prefers single-syllable men’s names (like Ted), so they are calling it “Jack Air”. A quick cut shows a confused Sam, as the executive pitches the slogans “Jack it to Paradise” and “Jack It Alone,” Sam stops them to say you can’t use this phrase – it means something that he doesn’t want it to mean. After Ross (Sam’s boss) figures it out, he promotes Sam to the head of the airline and gives him 3 days to create a new plan.

This makes me wonder about the track record of single-syllable men’s name campaigns. Ted for United, and of course the 40 million dollar flop “Where’s Herb” campaign for Burger King come to my mind.

Of course Sam parties more than he works. Maybe that’s the point. If he had thought too much, he would have over analyzed the problem and created another “Song.” Sam finally discovers at the last minute (we never do that do we) that they can be the low cost alternative to fly young partiers to where they party. Cabo, Padre Island, Cancun, etc…

Sam saves the day and gets promoted. And he has to make the decision the girl or the job, he takes the job. Who knows if this show has what it takes to make it, but the writing is funny and I’ve always wanted to work on an airline account since I saw Tom Hanks in Nothing In Common.

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