With promos that include close-ups of people French-kissing and program titles like Sex Pills & Love Potions and Electric Orgasm, one could forgive viewers that click onto Discovery Health Channel for momentarily thinking that they’ve tuned to a racier network like Cinemax.
Discovery Health, which recently completed a redesign, has begun running a slate of promos that focus on the body to tout its programming.
“The idea was that they [Discovery Health] wanted to make the packaging really human, more human than any channel. And when you think about making the package human, the first thing that came to mind for us was body parts,” said Mike Geodecke, CEO of Santa Monica, Calif.-based design firm Belief, which produced a series of on-air promos for Discovery Health.
A three-minute promo reel that Belief compiled for Discovery shows how the network uses close shots of many human bodies to promote its programming.
The live-action promos, which used actors of various ages and ethnicities, include shots of a man kissing a pregnant woman’s belly, a toddler bathing with his mother, surgeons and an amputee with one leg.
The promos hype both new and old shows on Discovery Health, including reality series Trauma: Life in The ER, Dr. G: Medical Examiner; Life’s Little Miracles; and the aforementioned late-night fare Sex Pills & Love Potions and Electric Orgasm.
DAYPARTED PROMOS
Discovery Health began running the new on-air images in July. Belief said it broke down the channel into two main blocks for the promos.
Daytime spots use soft, organic elements such as diffused gauze, while promos that run in the primetime block use hard-edged elements, such as X-ray tabs, for a more aggressive look.
“The end result is a cohesive network package executed in a striking photographic style. It is functional, gripping, poignant and beautiful,” Discovery Health vice president and creative director Gheri Arnold said in a statement.
Discovery Health currently counts about 59 million subscribers.
