Development Seed Blog

(AP Photo/Richard Drew)

These days it seems like celebrities are just drawn to advocacy issues. They act as UN ambassadors like Angelina Jolie and Nicole Kidman, they co-write books on genocide like Don Cheadle, and they start movements like Bono. So why aren't they taking advantage of one of the most viral forms of advocacy out there - ringtones?

Last night during the finale of The Sopranos, Tony Soprano's cell phone went off and my neighbor Ryan gasped, "I have to get that ringtone." A few minutes later Pauly Walnut's cell phone rang and my friend David commented on how awesome the ringtone was. It almost felt like Pauly let it ring just to play a few extra chords. These weren't gimmicky ringtones pulled from the show's theme song or anything. They were just great sounding ringtones that sounded good and, if overheard in public, might have some hidden meaning to die hard Sopranos fans. And they happened to get some of the best airtime of the year with placement on The Sopranos finale.

With all the star power behind so many advocacy organizations, why aren't more of them going for ringtone placement like this? Why am I curious about this? Guess what I did today. I went looking to buy Tony's ringtone. It wasn't on Cingular's website, or on Sprint's. Even HBO, which has a great mobile site with several ringtones, didn't have it. They only had Joe McBride's "I woke up this morning and got myself a gun" and The Sopranos' theme song as ringtones, which in my opinion are a bit cliche. It was good to see that Phil Gallo with Variety TV gave Pauly Walnut's ringtone a shout out when he praised the music from last night's episode.

The ringtone I wanted - and that my friends wanted - wasn't out there. And why not? I'm sure we weren't the only ones to covet the ringtone. Ringtones have been hot for years, and the idea of integrated product placement is nothing new. CBS did it right last year. During an episode of CSI, Danny Messer's phone went off to the tune of Coldplay's Talk. And then at the commercial break, CBS offered it up for sale. I'm not sure what CBS' response was to this, but it seems like an awesome gimmick to me - one that goes a bit farther than your standard product placement with potentially excellent results.

Imagine what would happen with some star power behind a compelling advocacy issue. Well, American Idol's two-day Idol Gives Back series received more than 70 million calls or text messages. That's insane. Just think of the money that could be raised and the messages that could be spread if Bono released a ringtone during a popular television show for the song Instant Karma which happens to be on a CD Amnesty International is releasing tomorrow to raise awareness and mobilize people to save Darfur. It would surely have a great viral effect and further spread the word about the album and the cause. Heck, if that had been placed during The Sopranos finale, it would have been a huge score even without a product placement in the episode.

So does anyone know how much it would cost to place ringtone in an show?

By the way, if you want to get Tony's ringtone from last night's episode, here is the best link i found.