Norfolk company does marketing for BET reality show

The commercials for the new BET reality program "Tiny & Toya," just might make viewers mutter, "Oh Lord, here we go again."

After all, Black Entertainment Television has long been criticized by African Americans, ironically, who say its programming is one-dimensional and stereotypical and fails to accurately depict upwardly mobile, educated black Americans. (To be fair though, watching ordinary Americans schlep to Target and mow the lawn on Saturday isn't exactly riveting TV.)

Some of the network's more popular fare includes a reality show about the singer Keyshia Cole, whose recovering addict mother and sister are hot mess personified, and "106 & Park," which features a barrage of hip-hop videos.

That's why the news that BET's latest reality show would follow the lives of Tiny, the fiance of rapper T.I., in prison on gun charges, and Toya, the ex-wife of Lil Wayne, the rapper with a veritable starting lineup of out-of-wedlock babies, makes it easy to imagine the sound of click-clacking as thousands of fed-up buppies type e-mails.

Yet when the show premiered June 30, it revealed something surprising: it's not at all the tragic ghetto story people expected, but rather a portrait of two women juggling the universal struggles of motherhood, career and family. To boot, the show has a local connection: the Norfolk-based firm Titanium Productions is doing the marketing for the show, as well as some behind-the-scenes consulting.

"I don't want to say it's drama free," said Henri LeJacques Parks, head of Titanium. Parks, an Atlanta native, graduated from Norfolk's Old Dominion University in 1999 with a degree in biology, but an unexpected opportunity to promote a concert with rapper Ludacris, also from Atlanta, led to a career in concert promotions and then marketing.

Now Parks' 6-year-old firm has seven full-time employees and counts among its clients the Virginia Housing Development Authority, Christopher Newport University and the Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center in Newport News. Personal relationships with the rap stars led to Titanium's involvement with the BET show.

Titanium is doing Internet campaigns as well as media buys (sort of a commercial) for the show, and Parks has met with the women often during the tapings, although he will not appear on camera. His sister, Phaedra Parks, is an entertainment attorney in his hometown of Atlanta, where the show is taped, and makes a number of appearances.

Tameka "Tiny" Cottle and Antonia "Toya" Carter come from different walks of life, Parks said.

"But they're trying to create a better life for their families under the shadows of these big iconic pop singers. People think they are 'baby mamas' who just shop all day, but that couldn't be further from the truth. You see them go through the same problems as families in general - issues with their children and parents."

The first episode drew 3.8 million viewers when it aired right after the BET Awards, and judging by the reaction from the notoriously jaded blogosphere, people liked it.

In later episodes, viewers will see Toya work through her issues of growing up in a single-parent household.

"Tiny grew up in a stable, two-parent household, and you can see the difference between her and Toya, who had a single mother. So it's about, 'How do we change that in our community?' You actually see these young ladies work on themselves to present a better view of the world for their children."

Issues of intimacy also will arise.

"There is one episode where there are women saying, 'Are there any good black men out there?' And a woman who's been happily married for a while says that there are, but a marriage is like a flower - it has to be nurtured. There are a lot of conversations like that, that are about 'How do I get my life on track?' There are career issues, too; in the mid-'90s, Tiny was a singer in the R&B group Xscape, and like many women, she's trying to figure out how to reignite her career while balancing her family."

It might be set to a hip-hop beat, and the language might not be Elizabethan, but doggone it, this BET show might actually be what viewers have been asking for. Or at least, it's a step in the right direction.

"We are hoping it will start healthy dialogue in our community," Parks said. "If you are looking for the same issues and drama you see in other shows, you're not going to get that."

Malcolm Venable, (757) 446-2662, malcolm.venable@pilotonline.com