Secret Girlfriend holds secret to marketing

After a few short weeks, it seems Comedy Central may have found a show to follow South Park.

Perfectly targeted to Gen Y males, Secret Girlfriend (Wed’s at 10:30 on Comedy Central) is a perfect vehicle for the kind of advertising that Viacom (the network’s parent) wants to bring in.

The show is filmed as if you are a character, giving you a point-of-view style shoot as you drink, party and sleep with girls. And honestly, it’s a little addicting.

But, even more than the fact that Comedy Central now has yet another vehicle to market Xbox games and slasher flicks, I’m left wondering what the impact of this “first-person shooting” style is for marketing…

1) Why haven’t any companies tried this first person style in a commercial? It seems like a perfect fit for apparel or other lifestyle brands. Imagine a commercial where it’s not Kobe or Lebron soaring to the basket, but you. Or it’s not Adrian Peterson gliding past defenders, it’s you. It’s not Alex Rodriguez smashing a deep drive to… You get the point.

There’s definitely some interesting psychology involved, and I’m excited to see whether this new style is going to be used, or if it will remain a niche…