By Chris Daley
Like most horse racing fans I was eager to watch the pilot
episode of Luck when HBO gave a sneak preview of the show in
December. Luck boasted great writing and an all-star cast, with
horse racing footage that would keep you on the edge of your seat. After
one-and-a-half episodes, I feel asleep.
I tried to keep an open mind, but the show just didn’t do it
for me and I didn’t think it would last very long. Taking the horse
racing scenes out of it, the story lines weren’t captivating, and I didn’t feel
like wasting hours of my time waiting for characters to develop.
But there was some hope as I followed along people in the
horse racing industry on Twitter. The National Thoroughbred Racing
Association (NTRA) hosted a successful #LuckChat on Twitter each Monday night
with actors from the show and fans of horse racing. Although I didn’t
participate, the discussions were fun to follow and more interesting than the
show.
This week HBO pulled the plug on the Luck, they say,
as a result of three unfortunate horse deaths behind-the-scenes. The news
has caused quite a stir from animal rights activists, horse racing fans and
other people that have no idea what they are talking about. The story put
horse racing in the mainstream for the wrong reasons. People who don’t
normally follow the sport are now captured by negative headlines, and people
have been coming out from everywhere calling for the sport to re-evaluate all
of its safety measures.
It’s pretty clear HBO was trying to pull a clever PR
maneuver and use the accidental horse deaths as a way out so they wouldn’t have
to say they were cancelling the show because of its declining ratings. As
someone who works in the industry of horse racing and public relations, I
didn’t like this strategy at all and felt it was a little sleazy. The irony is
that in the pilot episode of Luck, the show glorified a fatality on the
race track, and just a couple months later the creators of the show cancel it
because of accidents they couldn’t control.
When the show first aired, I heard many people say that Luck
was great sports marketing. Yes, to have a show about a sport that needs
help drawing the mainstream audience can be a good thing. However, in
this case the attempt to create a mainstream television program about horse
racing backfired, which hurt the sport and gave a bad impression of what public
relations professionals do for a living.
Chris Daley is a Senior Account Executive at Maroon PR.Contact him at Chris@MaroonPR.com
Like you, I rooted (but didn't wager)for "Luck" to succede. The pace of character development was too slow, and the Pick-6 storyline left novices scratching their heads. Stumbled out of the gate but showed heart.
ReplyDeletehmmmpppp... That's why I prefer watching live horse racing. No boring moment that I would not want to close my eyes even for a single second. The Grand National is coming up and this could be a very exciting event you should watch.
ReplyDeleteI believe this is a decision of both parties - between the producers of "Luck" and HBO. Producers know what is at stake that is why they agree not to continue the show. However, I just hope that they do make a proposal like for example a new format of the TV series. Just my two cents.
ReplyDelete