It’s called “Own It,†of course, because Oprah’s network is called OWN, and both Oprah and Will.I.Am want you to own things in your life, metaphorically speaking. Its reason for existing, though, is a bit more practical: Starting today, a commercial for OWN soundtracked by “Own It†is running in movie theaters (and on the Internet, of course: See the unembeddable clip at nytimes.com).
We actually were gearing up for a little spiel about how even here, today, in 2010, when “selling out†has ceased to exist as any kind of meaningful concept, Will.I.Am still does some stuff that makes us uncomfortable. But this bit from the Times piece about OWN’s marketing plan gets at what we were thinking far better than we ever could:
To hear OWN executives tell it, “Own It†was born out of a conversation between will.i.am and the channel’s chief creative officer, Lisa Erspamer, who said she was looking for a theme for “Your OWN Show: Oprah’s Search for the Next TV Star,†a competition show that will have its debut in January. A half-hour later, will.i.am called back with the song.
A half-hour!