Actually the programming is one of the main points in Mtv’s success. The brilliant thing about the Mtv brand is that it is constantly changing and adjusting to the pop cultural moment. Notice a new trend the kids are all randy about? Just adjust the programming to add a bit or show that reflects it. Not enough coverage? Repeat it. And then repeat it. And then repeat it.
Jus’ beat ‘dat dead horse! And then get rid of it like you never thought it was cool in the first place.

Seems to work. By continual programmatic tweaking and adjusting, Mtv refuses to be pinned down. Add to that a logo that loves to be manipulated, a purposefully fickle art direction and a crack graphic design team and what results is a brand that adjusts its form more often than Madonna but stays fresh and current. The Mtv brand manager has both the easiest and the toughest job compared to his or her other brand manager buddies. That show/artist/font/color/location/personality feels tired? Change it. That simple. On the other hand, they probably lay awake at night and mutter “what IS Mtv… really?” Just kidding.

Where the Mtv brand does feel like an outdated clunker is in it’s pathetic attempts at retail. Note, please, the Mtv Store on Times Square in New York. As you may know, Times Square usually attracts retail brands that spend eleventy million dollars, pull out all the stops and really try to wow the crowd with crazy-amazing (although usually touristy and a tad campy) retail spaces. The Mtv store looks and feels like a little forgotten old prop closet (that happens to be at street level) with a couple shirts and some old trucker hats. And the signage type! It makes one shudder with boredom. What’s the deal? How could Mtv be so cool and so dopey all at the same time? Are the Mtv bigwigs so busy with the Mtv channel family that they accidentally overlooked the store? Well, with the Mtv studios and offices just upstairs… that’s doubtful. Do they hate the buying public and just want to punish them? Surely not.

One humble theory to the answer is that a retail store falls decidedly outside of the realm of Mtv’s normal thinking process. Mtv is a savvy shapeshifting mirror, always reflecting the most current of our pop culture. A retail store forces Mtv to make concrete what is normally fleeting sounds, images and fads. It’s where the brand is made physical. The execs upstairs, most probably (and perennially) wary of standing still for fear of gathering moss, hedged their bets on the store design and made a bland little box that no one would remember because the kids would be so focused on grabbing as many Pimp My Ride coffee cups and Punkt notebooks as possible.

O.K. Full disclosure here. Yours truly was hired as a design consultant by a retail design firm to develop a concept for an expanded and reimagined Mtv Store. The idea was to expand the retail space into the adjacent stores (Tad’s Steaks!?!) so that the Mtv Store could sit squarely under the TRL Studio on the second floor. Thereby allowing the kids on the street screaming for Brittney’s attention to have easy access to tie-in buying possibilities. Also explored was the concept of connecting the retail experience on the ground level directly to the ‘on-air’ experience upstairs. Everyone could be a star… if they hung out in the store… At left is an initial rendering of what the retail entrance might look like. Very ‘Times Square’ no? Needless to say, the project never went anywhere for whatever reason. Bummer for all involved.

Regardless, Mtv remains a relevant and world-dominating brand in the pop music industry. It can make a star or… cause a star to fizzle. We only hope that Mtv will realize the utmost importance of the retail aspect of their brand as THE place where the public can physically experience the reach of the Mtv brand. Until then, we’ll just watch reruns of Cribs and wait.