Fuse TV Launches ”Music Is” Ad Campaign, Highlighting Viewers Emotional Connection with Music

Unveils New Tag Line with Emphasis on Music

Music is Rebellion, Music is Adrenaline, Music is Therapy, Music is Freedom. Fuse, the only cable television network dedicated to music, has launched a $15 million dollar advertising campaign, “Music Is,” tapping into consumers personal and emotional connections with music and unveiling its new tag line, reminding them to “Get Your Music On” Fuse. The campaign, developed by The Brooklyn Brothers, features up-and-coming artists and directors, each illustrating their own personal connection to music using various mediums, including photography, animation and CGI, among others.

“As the only home dedicated to music on television, we believe the ‘Music Is’ campaign will resonate with our viewers, reminding them of the role music plays in their lives and encouraging them to tune-in to Fuse to experience some of their favorite artists from the world of rock, pop and hip-hop,” said Kristin Dolan, SVP, Cablevision.

The campaign features nine different print executions and six different broadcast spots, each created by a different artist and director, including Shepard Fairey who created the famous Obama Progress political poster. Each artist and director was chosen based on their familiarity with Fuse’s 18-34 year old target audience and their love of music. They were each provided a series of words, a corresponding color palate and given the freedom to create a message highlighting what music means to them, emphasizing their own personal, individual connection with music. The result: a series of thoughtful, provocative and moving images, music and words underscoring the emotional connection of music. In addition to television and print, this campaign will be supported with targeted online outreach and out-of-home. It will also have a dedicated presence on www.fuse.tv that will emulate the campaign’s artistic approach and further engage the target audience with an interactive experience. The launch of this campaign compliments a new on-air look and feel which represents the diverse, unique and very personal world of music.
Print Execution:

Music is Rebellion
Artist: Shepard Fairy

The fist holding a microphone symbolizes every fight, every struggle, every cause music has taken up. It represents music as a political weapon, from black power to anti-Vietnam, to poverty, to famine. It is raised not in anger, but in defiance.

Music is Heartache
Artist: Lane Coder

Love: the pursuit of it, the capturing of it and the loss of it is at the very heart of so many songs. At times music can be our solace, our torment and our comfort. Here we see a private moment of heartache as a woman, slumped in the front seat of her car, listens to a song on her car stereo.

Music is a Memory
Artist: Cassandra Nguyen

You only have to hear a few bars of a song to be instantly reminded of a moment in time. You know exactly where you were when you heard it, the people you were with and the times you went through. The Polaroid also captures a moment in time too, never to be repeated or copied. Each image, like each memory, is unique.

Music is Salvation
Artist: Henry Obasi

For so much of American youth, music represents a way out: an alternative to destroying yourself through drugs or destroying others through violence. You don’t have to play it or create it to be saved by it: you just have to listen to it.

Music is an Aphrodisiac
Artist: Staffan Larsson

For centuries music has been the overture to love and the soundtrack to seduction. Its beats echo our heart-rates. Its rhythms quicken our pulses.

Music is Freedom
Artist: Hellovon

Wherever you are, music can take you anywhere you want to be. It sets you on a journey, both spiritually and mentally, around the world and around your senses. It’s easy to lose yourself in its rhythms and melodies.

Music is Escape
Artist: Yuko Shimizu

Music liberates and elevates. When you’re listening to music you’re transported from the everyday. The humdrum ebbs away. Reality is less important. The real world becomes distant.

Music is Reflection
Artist: McFaul

Every moment in music – every bar and every refrain – is a mirror to our thoughts and passions. Every great song reflects a truth about the human condition, whether it’s about love, jealousy, hate, war, anger, indifference or any of our other infinite emotions.

Music is Love
Artist: Scott Campbell

From the moment we become aware of music we start idolizing musicians. We adorn our walls with their images. We dress how they dress. We follow them on tour. We even tattoo our bodies with their iconography. Music is part of us: it’s in our blood.

Broadcast Execution:

Music is Adrenaline
Director: David Lobser

This film captures the intensity of music. How it makes us move, how it accelerates our heart-rates, how it makes us bounce up and down, twist, turn, gyrate, groove. In a world created by New York Director David Lobser where Barbarella goes to a Rave, we see a host of dancing girl aliens that dance, faster and faster, each one in perfect synchronicity to an individual instrument.

Music is Joy
Director: Holbrooks

Some music just lifts you no matter what your mood. It carries you up on its tempo and makes you tap your foot and smile. Like moments in life, music can capture the ecstasy of life. This film takes the exhilaration of crowd surfing and actual surfing and melds them into one. Crafted by novice Welsh directors Holbrooks, our surfer is literally carried on a wave of hands.

Music is Therapy
Director: Cisma

Sadness can color your world. It can make the whole world seem lifeless and underwater. In this beautiful film by Brazilian Director Cisma we see a girl literally drowning in her own tears. Her whole world is consumed by her sadness. Yet through the power of music we see the water begin to ebb. As the tears subside a gentle smile flickers on her face. Through music she is able to endure her suffering and rise above it.

Music is a Balloon
Director: Pistachios

Sometimes music can be a barrier. We enclose ourselves in music. Equally, it can lift us away from the trials and tribulations of the daily grind. Listen to a song and instantly you can shake off the shackles of everyday existence. You forget about your job, the commute, the arguments and the crowds. In this metaphor created by Swedish director Pistachios, we see a young man rise above his day and watch him as he is transported through song.

Music is Time Travel
Director: Nanospore

Every song takes us back to a specific moment. The place where we first heard it, who we were with, it even returns us to the mood we were in at the time: as powerful as the sense of smell, music has the ability to let us travel through time. In this film West Coast Directors Nanospore take us back to the moment when the birth of hip-hop first transformed a young man. His journey takes him past all the important milestones and back again.

Music is Soulmates
Director: Friends with You

Nothing brings people together like music. Strangers become friends, friends become lovers. If you share a love of a band or a particular song you have a bond that will last forever. In this film by Miami-based director-team Friends With You, we follow the story of a puppet. He is alone in the world and feels that no-one is like him. Yet through music he is able to find his soulmate.

About Fuse

Fuse, the national music television network, brings viewers closer to their favorite artists and bands by featuring original series and specials, exclusive interviews, live concerts and video blocks – all rooted in the music experience. Celebrating the hit makers of today, familiar favorites and edgy newcomers, Fuse accommodates the wide ranging tastes and attitudes of its 12-34 year-old audience with compelling music programming on-air, on-line, on-demand and via mobile technologies. Fuse is a part of Madison Square Garden, L.P. is owned by Cablevision Systems Corporation, and includes the New York Knicks (NBA); the New York Rangers (NHL); the New York Liberty (WNBA); the Hartford Wolf Pack (American Hockey League); MSG Entertainment, which includes concerts and events at Radio City Music Hall, Madison Square Garden, The WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden, the Beacon Theatre, as well as the legendary Chicago Theatre, and which manages wholly-owned live entertainment properties including the Radio City Rockettes and the Radio City Christmas Spectacular; MSG Media, which is comprised of MSG and MSG Plus.
Contacts

Fuse:
Amy Lynn, 212-324-3444
alynn {at} fuse(.)tv
or
Kelly Caton, 212-324-3427
kccaton {at} fuse(.)tv