Sarah Ferguson: a critique

This afternoon I watched an episode of "Finding Sarah:From Royalty to the Real World." The title of the episode is "Braving the big city." I want to preface my critique with the fact that I don't see anything wrong with her attempting to continue writing her books or even getting them animated. However, I do believe that she is going about it the wrong way. In the beginning of this episode, Sarah pitches her story "Little Red" to a roomful of older, caucasian, men who work for Nickelodeon. These men were not impressed.

Sarah's stories may have merit but the way she presented them was not effective. Sarah seemed to think that the problem had to do with her recent scandal when in reality, the problem was her pitching style. She went in telling them about the theme and using diplomatic language that would be appropriate at a diplomatic function where she had to give a speech about how children should be raised in this global village.

Fergie seems to have missed the point of animated movies, and that is to entertain. She didn't (at least not in the TV show.) tell them about why Little Red is so exciting and about the tremendous adventures Little Red will have. Fergie talked about teaching humanity when what she needed was a pre-fab roller coaster ride, book deal, pre-cast animated project that the whole family will love and will sell DVDs, tee shirts, and a special edition of Monopoly.

Fergie thought her brand was relevant, but the truth is that in the world of animation a divorced former princess is not a selling point. If she wanted to sell the stories she should hire someone else to pitch it, someone who does not carry baggage into the room. The point is to make the sale. Then, once the product is successful, reveal who the author was and thus repair Fergie's name and brand.

I don't suppose Fergie will ever come across my blog, but I really hope that someone clues her into how this is done. It would be too bad if perfectly good stories got lost because the author doesn't know what to present when.