Advertisers Not Down With 'Jersey Shore'

Jersey Shore returned Thursday night with Snooki, The Situation and company in Italy.

The series will probably draw its usual huge audience, but traditional advertisers appeared underwhelmed. 

Hewlett-Packard advertised its tablet and laptop. Under Armor pushed its shoes. Kraft bought a spot for Miracle Whip. Taco Bell–which pulled out of MTV’s Skins–had a couple of ads in Jersey Shore.

Fittingly, there was an ad for Trojan condoms. The makers of diet supplement Stacker II hired some of the Jersey Girls for a commercial that ran several times in the premiere. But most of the ads were for movies, which traditionally have been unafraid to sponsor dicey content.

One group of marketers that seemed enthusiastic to reach the Jersey Shore audience was television networks. Fox had a promo for its comedy The New Girl, Disney’s ABC Family promoted its series The Lying Game and its movie Teen Spirit, and Bravo aired a promo for Most Eligible Dallas. (Some of these may have aired in local time sold by Comcast rather than MTV.)

And there was plenty of room for promos for a variety of MTV shows including Teen Wolf and the upcoming Video Music Awards.