Dr. Marla Shapiro, one of our Canadian jewels, was the host of Balance (CTV’s best daytime talk show in my opinion), until an event changed her life irrevocably in 2004. Dr. Marla is resurfacing after a contest with cancer which she appears to be winning. This beautiful wife, mother and scholar, is the stuff of which better programming is made. Her excessive wit, intelligence and grace mixed with her stunning beauty have defined Balance for years. Her guests have ranged from Dr. Phil to Mark Evans, Toronto’s most respected restauranteur and owner of North 44. While I name Balance as the Brand of The Week, it is hard to express its value without Dr. Marla. Yet, I will attempt.
I am often heard ranting at Canadian productions for their overlit, thrifty sets, underpopulated audiences (a key social psychology factor) and tinny sound. Balance set designers have staged Dr. Marla’s sets with style, texture and balance indeed. The content, health and lifestyle, is always top-notch and moves from topic to topic with Dr. Marla’s aplomb.
This 30 minute production airs this coming season at 1pm (reruns at 10 am). Balance prime time specials will also air in the evening hosted by our other Canadian jewel, Valerie Pringle, former host of Valerie Pringle Has Left The Building, a travel show which I simply adored. For brands looking to borrow meaning from programming context and impressions from a loyal following, Balance (am or pm) is a perfect place to park your 30 second spots (no, I am not receiving payment for this endorsement). Hopefully, the network will stop messing with time slots and allow viewers to find Balance or even Valerie Pringle “who has left her own show”.
Balance is an excellent program which if well commandeered as a brand replete with meaning can blossom into many other iterations of itself not unlike Prevention magazine, Martha Living or dare I say, Oprah. Think Balance social media, web content (its own), books, magazines, events and merchandise. A name with great meaning comes with great responsibility; balance is after all what we strive for in all our quests and relationships. As a brand archetype, Dr. Marla can be viral (no pun).
Its website is strangely licensed to and produced by a rival media empire, Transcontinental Media, and parked under its Canadian Living.com site. Huh? This does not bode well for authenticity and fails to capture the richness of Balance’s content. This network must think outside the analog box and get inside my head and heart, cultivating the resonance surely present with all Balance viewers.
