Still the One (promotional campaign)

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This article is about the promotional campaign. For the song by the band Orleans, see Still The One (song).

Still the One is a promotional campaign that has been used on several television networks around the world. The slogan was originated by the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) in 1977, and later adopted by the Nine Network in Australia, Channel 2 in New Zealand, as well as Sky Television (now British Sky Broadcasting) in the United Kingdom.

1 American Broadcasting Company
2 Nine Network
- 2.1 Nine Network Idents
3 Sky Television
4 Television New Zealand

[edit] American Broadcasting Company

The "Still the One" logo (1977 version).

In 1977, coinciding with its newfound success as the number one network, ABC launched the "Still the One" campaign with help from JAM Productions of Dallas, Texas. It featured a version of the 1976 song by the group Orleans, also called "Still The One".

Screenshot from ABC's "Still the One" video, from 1977.

The ABC logo in the "Still the One" logo (1979 version).

ABC used a different campaign, "We're the One", in the following season. "Still the One" was brought back for the 1979-80 season, before being replaced by "You and Me and ABC".

ABC's owned-and-operated station in New York City, WABC-TV, also used an instrumental version of the music to close its evening newscasts from 1980 to 1984. [1]

Still The One (1977, video)

[edit] Nine Network

Jessica Rowe in Nine Network's 2006 Still The One promotion

Australia's Nine Network often used similar promotional campaigns as ABC [2], and adopted "Still the One" a few years after its introduction in the United States. The campaign's original incarnation also made use of the song by Orleans.

The network uses the slogan as part of its boast of being the overall ratings leader. Nine has dominated television ratings for many years in Australia, only falling to second place for short periods (for example, during the 2000 Sydney Olympics, which were telecast on its arch-rival, the Seven Network).

It is a favourite target of satirists including D-Generation on The Late Show in the early 1990s with a fairly famous sketch called "Still Number Four" (referring to ABC TV, which generally ranked fourth in ratings).

The promo persisted in Australia even long after it had been dropped in the United States, and Nine continued to air various versions of it over the years (and still use it almost 30 years later). Updates to the original Orleans song were used in some years, while other years saw the use of decidedly unrelated songs, with the "Still the One" tagline only seen in text form. The promo has also been shortened over time, from almost 3 minutes in the original version down to 90 seconds by 2003.

Although there were rumours that the campaign could be dropped after the Nine Network's rebranding in 2006, Nine returned the slogan with a 90-second promotion advertisement featuring many of the network's personalities.

[edit] Nine Network Idents

[edit] Sky Television

Sky Television We're The One promotion, 1989

The promotional campaign was also used as part of Sky Television's (now British Sky Broadcasting) idents for its launch in 1989. It also used the Orleans song, with the tagline modified to say "We're the One, We're Britain's Number One" instead. The campaign returned the next year, with the tagline changed back to "Still the One".

[edit] Television New Zealand

In the late 1980s, 'Still the One' was adopted by Television New Zealand's Channel 2 for its ident. The song became 'Share the Best', with the original line, 'We're still having fun / And we're still the one' replaced with 'Share the best / With Channel 2'.