‘Today’ spotlights audience in promo focused on ‘moments’

By Michael P. Hill February 28, 2022

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NBC News‘ “Today” is airing an uplifting promo centered around the concept of “moments” with viewers.

The spot incorporates the on screen typography similar to the lettering used in the “This is who we are” and “This is ‘Today‘” promos that have aired in the past on both MSNBC and NBC.

In this spot, however, each line addresses the viewer directly with phrases such as “To all of you who start your day with us” and “You make today brighter” while clips of the show’s hosts interacting with viewers are shown along with selfie-style ones contributed by fans.

Text is shown in same typeface used in the “Today” wordmark, Proxima.

Meanwhile, “The Moment,” a lyrical song from the production music album of the same named from Hooked, part of Universal Production Music, plays in the background.

The spot concludes with a large outline of a red heart appearing on screen as the “Today” team waves to the crowd outside Studio 1A. 

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The heart them morphs into the “Today” sunrise logo, which is also used as a cutout element at the beginning of the promo.

The concept of using Proxima typography with similar sentence structures has been in use for several years within NBC News, starting with MSNBC spots that emphasized the key facets of the values its anchors, hosts and journalists strive for.

However, these spots typically used a musical bed, often an unidentified piano cut.

“Today” and “NBC Nightly News” also got versions of the promo and MSNBC has updated its look to use its new branding and typography.

While the typography concept remains similar, the use of music with lyrics and lack of “This is” phrasing makes this “Today” promo distinct. “Today” frequently creates updated promo styles and themes.

“Nightly” has switched mainly to using promos billing Lester Holt as the “anchor for America.” 

These spots also frequently use parallel sentence structure and their own typography scheme along with an instrumental musical bed mixed with nat sound.

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