It’s the first time the network has had such a role, and while creating a corporate social responsibility team at a television network is nothing new, one expert said placing the job at a vice president level is a clear indication that Comedy Central intends to amplify its role in social causes, rather than create the position for the sake of good PR.
“What it makes Comedy Central look like is proactive and taking a little bit of a leadership role in this,” said Tom O’Guinn, the chair of the marketing department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s school of business. “Everybody is talking about it, but for a company to actually create a vice president for corporate social responsibility, that’s a pretty big deal.”
In her position, Soto Lamb is responsible for streamlining and uplifting Comedy Central’s existing social impact strategy -- which has mostly stemmed from the outspoken talent on a few of the network’s shows, such as Trevor Noah of “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” and Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer of “Broad City.”
“It’s happened scattershot before,” Soto Lamb said of the network’s history of taking stances on social issues during an in-person interview at her office in New York City on Oct. 4. “It’s happened because it was from the talent of the shows, but it hasn’t come from the brand. I think that’s the real opportunity for us.”
To figure out the best approach, Soto Lamb has been sitting down with the network’s research and insights department to learn about what issues Comedy Central’s audience cares about; with the network’s talent pool to hear what’s important to it; and with her own team. She’s also planning an internal survey to gauge where the company stands as a whole.
“Comedy Central has been commenting and critiquing and poking fun at the various and many social and political issues for a long time -- that’s not new at all,” she said. “But what is new is the interest in not just the critique of comedy, but also the transition to a more constructive comedy.”
Although she’s only been in the vice president position for about a month, Soto Lamb has been familiar with Comedy Central’s existing social impact strategy for quite some time. In July 2015, a gunman opened fire at a Lafayette, La., movie theater, killing two women and injuring nine other people, while it was showing actress and comedian Amy Schumer’s movie “Trainwreck.” In response, Comedy Central’s show “Inside Amy Schumer,” which has since gone off the air, wanted to tackle the issue of gun violence in one of its episodes. To do that, Comedy Central staff sat down with Soto Lamb’s Everytown team to learn everything they could about the issue.
The end result: A four-minute sketch featured in one of Schumer’s episodes where buying a gun is compared to shopping for items on a TV shopping channel, and an interview between Schumer and an Everytown executive.
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