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Commerce meets comedy– The debate goes on

Matthew Grimm, writing for Brandweek (the same folks who brought you Adweek and Mediaweek):

(Comedy) doesn’t work when an account exec joins the team. Real comedy, especially standup, turns the world inside out to expose its inherent stupidity, and that often requires vulgarity, disrespect and challenging perceptions. Real art tends not to get sponsored, because sponsors can’t remotely be associated with anything vulgar, disrespectful or challenging to perceptions.

He’s perplexed by the un-funniness of Pepsi’s Sierra Mist campaign and he’s not amused by any of the contestants in Sierra Mist’s quest to find “America’s Next Great Comic” (“Five comedians, one soft drink”). We were perplexed because Pepsico required us to upgrade our Flash viewer in order to experience their site. Oh, well… there’s comedians in there somewhere.

Read the rest here.