• by Steve Smith , Staff Writer @popeyesm, May 12, 2010

There are only a handful of branded entertainment series that can claim to reach a "second season," or even aspire to. Ikea's "Easy to Assemble," and Topps' "Back on Topps" come to mind. But over at the teen-focused AlloyTV the LG sponsored "Haute & Bothered" not only launches a second 11-episode set of episode cycle yesterday but even filled the interregnum with mockumentary teasers about what the characters were doing between seasons. Even more interesting is that it is a rare case of branded entertainment that actually has to undersell its own product.

This scripted blend of Saved By the Bell and Project Runway takes place at a design school with a small cast of (wait for it) broad and predictable types surrounding the (and again) bland but sweet heroine. They are all trying to win favor with (just once more) the stern instructor with the slight foreign accent. No, not Heidi Klum, but if it were even I would be watching this trifle aimed at the 12-24 target Alloy's Teen Network embraces. It is easy enough to tease some of these series as cartoonish school plays with ridiculously broad characters, but then you have to remember Project Runway itself, where the "real world" people act more like scenery-chewing self-conscious thespians than Pacino in his worst Scarface scene (pick any one at random, by the way).

But LG is happy, obviously, and they are spinning the show's success into a number of craft ancillary marketing programs. Viewers can text in to win a trip to NY Fashion Week or receive new LG phones. The site links to a set of interactive tools for making one's own design, getting show alerts, and seeing behind the scenes videos.

For the past few weeks, the site has hosted these inter-season "catch-up" videos with characters that are effective in getting viewer back in the show an in some ways are superior to the show itself. According to Alloy there are a lot of people waiting for Season Two since the series has produced more than 9 million views thus far. They also say that the clickthrough rate on the companion ads surrounding the viewer and promotions is "stronger than average. The series get promotion through YouTube, RockYou and Meez.com where it has generated over 40,000 comments.

Since the show ultimately is pitching LG's phones you can imagine that you see more inordinately long shots of texting than you would expect in your standard Webisodic. Ironically, the least realistic part of this series may be how little the characters text compared to real-world teens. Imagine that - an instance where branded entertainment and product placement actually has to show characters encountering their product less in a show than in real life. Because if you really wanted to depict how much of a teen's life is spent head bowed over handset pecking, then it would come off with all the wholesomeness of crack.