h a l f b a k e r yA dish best served not.
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TV commercials are SO predictable.
If it starts out with a child asking his mother "Why do cars need gas?" you know that the mom will now give the child the most patient, wonderfully worded answer ever, which validates the child's question and shows conscientiousness about the environment as well.
If
it starts out showing someone taking a bite of cereal, you know that they will say "Mmmmm, this is the most delicious cereal I've ever tasted" and their friend will then say "And it's nutritious too."
If it starts out with someone saying their phone bill is too costly, then it's a sure thing their friend will say "That's why I use _____, their calling plan saves the most money".
Because they are so predictable, there's little sense in watching them.
So I think the TV network should throw in a few 10-second clips that begin like commercials but actually go nowhere, just to keep you on your toes. Here are some examples:
Woman opens fridge and takes out a container of yogurt. She takes a bite, begins to get a dreamy look on her face, but then says "This yogurt really isn't very good." Her husband in the next room says "No, it really isn't." Commercial ends.
Father comes home to idealistic house at dinnertime. 6-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son shout "Daddy's home!". Father opens door, son and daughter run up to him and father says "Hi sweetie, what did you do today?" Daughter says "I watched TV". Father says "what did you do today, son?" Son says "Nothing." Commercial ends.
A shiny new car in a driveway in a beautiful suburb; bright sunny day. Person gets into passenger seat of car and says "So this is your new car!" Driver says "Yep, it got the highest government safety rating, five stars." Passenger says "Gee, this seat is really uncomfortable, I feel like I'm sitting on gravel." Driver says "It hasn't been getting the gas mileage I've expected, either". Commercial ends.
You see? With ads like that on, you'd never know if you should skip the commercial or watch it, and so the real commercials would get more viewing.
Even real companies would put out non-commercials about themselves at times if they thought people would then watch the real ones.
either love it or hate it.
http://www.youtube....watch?v=hC_r-dC4PqA
[po, Aug 16 2008]
[link]
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Better than the real thing, but who pays for it? |
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Other advertisers, networks themselves... why not, it'll draw more viewers. |
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It could be on the crying porn channel. |
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Sadly, I have seen commercials similar to this where you just don't know what the heck they are advertising. I can't think of any particular ones right now, so I guess they didn't stick with me. |
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Are the programs really that different. I always feel as if something is for sale when I watch TV and most movies too. I would love to see TV morph into a postmodernist experience. Mass media will always be about selling you something and it is somewhat scary when you don't know what it is. |
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Energizer batteries exploited this theme in the 1990's with lavish lead-in commercials about one or another fictitious product, over which the Energizer bunny thump-thump-thumped across the message. |
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I've long thought that the ad industry is killing the golden goose by running too much advertisting in too many places. What they are trying to get is your attention, and attention is a finite resource. There are only 24 hours in a day, and we can't spent it all looking at ads. |
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But far short of that limit, I think there's a human tolerance limit for unsolicited messages. In the U.S. at least, I think they are pushing this limit harder and harder. An hour long TV show in 1967 was 51 minutes of program, 9 minutes of advertising. Now its under 44 minutes of program, 16 minutes of advertising. |
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I think as they approach this tolerance limit, backlash occurs. Personally I used to be quite tolerant of ads, because I knew they paid for many free services that I enjoyed. But now they've gotten really annoying. |
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This idea would be a good way for the industry to double back a little and try to recover some attention from folks like me who are very jaded about ads because of their very ubiquity. I'd especially like it if more often than not, the fizzled ads were humourous. |
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As in [po]'s example, I think UK advertising sometimes tends in this direction already. |
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Advertising would suck a lot less if everyone just adopted a simple policy. The more you annoy me, the less likely I'm going to buy from you. Suddenly ad agencies would be trying to come up with the *least* annoying ads possible. |
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I think this would be a way not only to bring in more viewers,
but to add humor to the commercial break. |
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"So Bob, I heard you have bad credit." |
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"Yeah, it's pretty awful." |
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Bob and friend sit silently for five seconds. Commercial ends. |
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There's an ad showing an attractive and successful young woman, in a lovely house with fine posessions; she walks outside and is unexpectedly killed by a car. The message is about road safety. |
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Yeah but that has a message. |
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