Richard Branson jumps the shark.

Richard Branson jumped the shark last night on the Colbert Report.

The founder of the Virgin Group was on the Colbert Report last night to promote the new venture "Virgin America". The action was as follows: (1) Colbert asks questions about being a billionaire (2) Branson offers a flurry of lame responses (3) Branson forces plug for service at end of interview (4) Branson throws water on Colbert (5) Colbert gets staffer to get water, then dampens Branson. Some have called it awkward or even a fight. It was just pathetic.

Branson's principal mistake was that he didn't "get" the Colbert Report -- there was never a chance that Colbert was going to let him wax poetically about his new service in the Colbert spotlight. So instead of promoting the Branson cult of personality, the spot was instead a lame reach for a target market by a tired tireless self-promoter.

The Cult of Branson (Member #1: Richard Branson) is getting pretty tired -- it is at least on autopilot. This thought first occurred to me when Branson was on one of the Toronto news stations to promote Virgin Mobile and portable phone numbers. The "be different, yeah, yeah" message was there with the bearded and jeaned Branson, but he knew almost nothing about the new "service".

Where Virgin goes now that it's brand image has lost it's cache will be interesting. It's hard to see how a discounter can continue to play the "stick it to the man" card when Branson himself is getting perilously close to becoming "the man". Hey Virgin Group, do something _really_ different. Impress me.