You are now entering Ad Space, a realm of commercials, brought before us so we might examine how they work, and discuss why we both love and hate them so. So it is written …

The Product:
The FOX Kids TV lineup

The Promotions:

The Pitch:
We’re targeting a very narrow demographic here, but if you’re part of it, this promo will have you by the short and curlies.

Using King of the Hill to promote the FOX Kids lineup is such a weird choice.

I mean, there are plenty of adult cartoons that, while you might question whether it’s appropriate to use them in marketing to kids, you’d nevertheless understand why they’d have kid appeal. FOX Kids had already done similar promos using The Simpsons, a show that, while Matt Groening meant it for adults, was still hugely popular among 90’s kids.

But King of the Hill, with its slow pace, grounded stories, and least-cartoony-cartoon-art-style-ever … doesn’t seem to fit the vibe you’d want.

There’s an explanation, though. Prior to these promos, FOX Kids noticed they were getting a lot of teen and young adult viewers tuning in for the X-Men animated series, and had hopes that their Silver Surfer cartoon (another Marvel adaptation that was largely serious in tone) would achieve the same thing. So cross-marketing it with a show from FOX’s primetime lineup that appealed to said demographic, makes sense.

Of course, anyone hoping Silver Surfer would repeat the success of X-Men was wildly misguided. I wasn’t even aware there was a Silver Surfer cartoon until coming across these ads last week. Sorry, Norrin Radd.

But, hey, at least it gave us the wonderfully surreal sight of Hank Hill discussing propane and propane accessories with a cosmic surfing alien being. That makes it all worth it.