‘Switched at Birth’ season 5 star Vanessa Marano joins Freeform campaign (video)

ABC Family seems to have an interesting strategy in smoothing over the transition to Freeform: Releasing a series of videos featuring many of their actors, who each do their part to try to further explain the move and what it means.

In some videos, we’ve seen reminders that little is changing for the network programming-wise, whether it be their Christmas specials or many of the Disney movies they play on the weekends. The one below features “Switched at Birth” star Vanessa Marano, who has the horrendous task of trying to explain just what Freeform means. By the network’s definition, it’s a place to create some of your own rules … but not the kind that make people uncomfortable in a walk-around-your-apartment-in-front-of-your-roommate-in-no-clothes sort of way.

Marano and many of the other actors we’ve seen in some of these videos are real troopers for going along with this, but we suppose it makes sense given that their shows are still airing on the network, and they want to see them stay on the air as long as possible. They don’t want there to be any viewer confusion.

Personally, our feeling is that ABC Family wanted to change the name to remove “family” from the equation, mostly because that limits their audience to a certain extent to teenagers / young adults. It also has ties to the olden days, when this network was far from known for its edgy entertainment. (Yes, “The 700 Club” is still going to be airing despite the name change.)

For those wondering, there is no premiere date set in stone just yet for “Switched at Birth” season 5.