How to Make it...Authentic

Here’s a link to the opening of the relatively new HBO show, “How to Make it in America.” Check it out, and then read the rest of this post...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvfIGPiZL-g

I’m not a New Yorker, and I’ll argue to my dying breath that Chicago is a better city, but these opening credits just makes me want to jump off the couch and live in New York. It gives you that feeling of energy that the opening credits of every show from “Sex and the City” to “King of Queens” and everything in between can’t capture. These opening credits make me want to hustle in a non-sports kind of way. These opening credits have given me no choice but to watch every episode of a good, but not great, TV show.

Are they showing me the authentic New York experience? I don’t know, but based on the fact that when I watch the opening credits my heart races the same way it does when I walk through New York, it sure feels like the real deal.

As a person who makes a living trying to convince people to buy and try, there’s definitely something in here from which we can learn. The lesson is that most consumers/viewers just innately know when the energy and story is authentic and when they’re getting a version made to be a little too pretty and perfect.

Lesson learned. Roll credits.