Television commercials: Do they work.

Television commercials: Do they work.

  • Yes, gimme.

    Votes: 14 40.0%

  • Bugger off.

    Votes: 21 60.0%
  • Total voters
    35
I gotta say -- I'd said "Bugger off", but there is a caveat, and that's with media. I'll stop fast forwarding between commercials if there's a cool trailer on. Also, like with that latest playstation commercial where all the game characters salute "Michael". I watch that. Me and my girl always say -- Make a great commercial and we'll watch it. But so far as just putting your tired ass product on the screen with little innovation or creativity? I don't watch those anymore. Heck, I haven't watched a commercial on TV (unless on purpose) for years. I even pre-record Bears games and plan it so that I catch up with like 2 minutes left in the 4th quarter. lol I don't **** around when it comes to my DVRing!
 
Michael Traven said:
I really don't have a problem with commercials. I get irritated with the ads on YouTube, but that's because I use YT to put on a good song or something, turn up the volume high and then have this commercial blasting in my ears. <grin>

But for things like Hulu and broadcast/cable TV, I'll sit through the commercials because I know how it works on the other end. Without commercials, you'd have almost no television. I don't get how people can complain about commercials when they're watching a show for free. I don't even mind the commercial breaks on Hulu Plus. Licensing fees aren't cheap and Hulu has a right to make a profit for bringing me The Office, Parks & Rec and New Girl with the occasional Daily Show or SNL episode.

-JMT
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I don't agree, We need to move away from commercials on television and start letting people pay for what they want whether that be per network or per show (I'd prefer per show personally). The only commercial break a network should have to exhibit are commercials for its own product (e.g. other shows). I prefer product placement. Commercials are a massive waste. But I don't care. I just blast through 'em.
 
If commercials were removed from commercial television, cable fees would skyrocket and shows and studios would go broke. The only reason people watch as many shows as they do is because they bought a TV and don't have to consciously pay for each show they watch (making it seem "free" and therefore less of a choice to waste money, like say, going to the theater, buying a DVD or renting VOD). TV's are cheap as s..t right now, and Deedle Dee productions (Daniels' banner for The Office and Parks & Rec) doesn't make money off television sales. Also, when you bought your TV, you knew you were going to have to deal with ads, so it's kind of a no-brainer that buying a TV doesn't give you special priority consideration from cable/network companies.

If AMC went commercial-free, it would have to charge the cable provider a lot more to run its content. Since the cable provider would say no, AMC would have to drop expensive shows like Mad Men, Breaking Bad and, of course, The Walking Dead.

Or every channel could switch to being a pay channel, in which case you could afford about 10-15 channels, and that's including some really cheap-ass channels that don't currently put out premium level content. Without those, you're looking at 5-6 channels putting you at probably a $75/month cable bill (factoring cable service fees).

Commercials make the vast majority of television content "free." Obviously, you have to pay for delivery, and that's the real *****, but you seem to be under the assumption that eliminating those commercial breaks from commercial television wouldn't skyrocket the amount you pay to watch said television, and I strongly disagree with that presumption, which is why I'm perfectly fine with watching commercials.

-JMT
 
Love commercials, especially when they're CABLE commercials. And the production money is going straight in my pocket. Yes, gimme gimme gimme.

Hey you know what makes commercials look even better? When you watch them in fast-forward using your DVR. (Guilty of rewinding if I see a hot chick) :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)
 
I voted "bugger off"

I hate commercials with a passion, the cheap ones are an insult to my intelegence, the expensive ones little better than pornography.

Thank God for Auntie Beeb, long may she continue (And continue to be advert-free)
 
As much as I love movies and tv series, as much I hate them to be constantly interrupted, by the same 10 stupid commercials over and over during one show.
Commercials make me sick and I start hating the products, companies and brands. So I think they are highly counterproductive - at least to me and about anyone I know.

That´s why I don´t have a TV since my old one died 10 years ago.
And I´m not the only one. A lot of my friends stopped watching TV, because of the same reasons. I think we are witnessing a paradigm change here.

I watch DVDs on my computer - no commercials, no overdub (if they are in English) watch what and when I want = happy camper.

Frank
 
No. I'm stubbornly anti-commercials and anti-commercial.

On the suggested items (toothpaste, soap, etc) I buy generics.

Beer? Microbrews.

If there's an barrage of advertising from a particular product, it's effect (if any) is to get me to buy their competitor.

Even hulu and YT, hit play, walk away, come back, cue it up, watch.

The sad thing is when watching DVDs of good broadcast shows (like House), the commercials are gone, but the artificially dramatic moment- music swells, zoom into CU of face, fade to black, remains. How annoying, and a reminder of how commercial programs (even WITHOUT commercials) destroy the arc and pace of a story.

Michael Traven said:
If AMC went commercial-free, it would have to charge the cable provider a lot more to run its content. Since the cable provider would say no, AMC would have to drop expensive shows like Mad Men, Breaking Bad and, of course, The Walking Dead.-JMT
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AMC used to be commercial free when they ran movies. It was expanded basic cable, you were paying for programming, not for advertisers, which was one of the ideas of cable originally (that and reception and more channels).
Then they added one commercial in the middle of movies. Then another. Then AMC became like other channels full of commercials.

BUT, I have to admit, after seeing Terry's post, for some strange reason, I feel like buying some Barry Green and David Jimerson stuff...:undecided

Pookie- why do you ask???
 
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Agree with JMT, completely.

However, as one who works in TV, it still amazes me that cheap commercials (of which I have been part of, to be candid) can be effective, and are still produced the same way they were three decades ago. I'm talking about your local furniture moving, chipped windshield, shyster lawyer type spots that are often written, shot, cut and hit air within a week of the first call. Sometimes within 48 hours. Turn on your TV, you'll see them.

Having said that, I really admire high end spots, such as those done by Audi. And sometimes I see a spot that is simple, but effective, that motivates me.

But I can't say how much it affects my purchasing, but the thought does cross my mind when I see something really good.

Beautiful Audi spot:


Simple, yet effective:


I didn't produce this, but could have:

 
> shyster lawyer type spots

Bob Loblaw! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwWAsNZTnug

You can bet that after airing the above spot for "All New Auto Glass Express", sales went up - I have no doubt. No matter what the filmies on this board (and I've been one since 04) these commercials work. We may turn our collective noses up, but they do work. The poling sampling data from here is skewed. If you wanted an accurate read on the demographic that matters, this poll should be taken on the http://www.momcentral.com forum.
 
Honestly, the commercials for "Ghost Protocol" did it for me. But then again I mostly see the trailers online. Then again IMDB classifies web shows as TV shows.

-Nate
 
Jumping into this one late in the game, and this anecdote falls under "favor for a friend", but...

There's a book shop near my office. It's small, obscure... few people know it's there. It relies on word-of-mouth and regular/faithful customers, and it's still not pulling its own after several years of operation.

The last full-time bookshop manager they had (position was eliminated a couple years ago) was not allowed to advertise. The higher-ups honestly didn't let her do the things she needed to do. We were chatting about it one day and decided to pull an "ask for forgiveness rather than permission" stunt. I agreed to shoot and edit a :30 TV spot for her.

One of our news stations has a cable channel that airs constant loops of the latest live newscast up until the next live newscast (so the morning news runs over and over until the noon show, and the noon repeats until the 4:00, and so on). Their advertising packages are ridiculously low-cost. I suggested she look at this cable channel for her spot. It was early/mid December, so we were pushing gift shopping for Christmas. She bought a 2-week run that ended just a few days before the 25th, and the entire package was $300 (several spots each day).

In order to prove the point, I suggested that she keep a sheet of paper at the front counter. Every time some one walked in and mentioned the TV spot, she marked it down. If that person spent money - any money - she wrote down the sale amount (even if the person was a regular), because that sale can be attributed to the ad. At the end of the two weeks, we totaled up the sales attributed to the ad. $650.

That may not seem like much, but we more than doubled the investment. It showed that television advertising works. Imagine if we'd purchased a full month's package ($600), and started before December 1.

Sadly, this did nothing to convince the "powers that be" to allow further advertising of any kind. They wrote it off, since it made money, but a year later they decided to eliminate the position since the bookshop wasn't making enough to sustain her salary. (No, it doesn't make sense.) But the lesson learned here is that advertising works. And the cable channel may not seem like a concept that would have a considerable viewership, but it reaches almost a dozen counties in the area and people do watch it.
 
Of course TV advertising works.
I'm an advertising graduate and have made a lot of it.
I have seen my works;
PROTECT JOBS
GAVE PEOPLE BETTER INFORMATION THUS BETTER CHOICES
CREATE AWARENESS
RAISED PROFITS FOR CORPORATIONS AND MEDIUM SCALE BUSINESSES
SPREAD A GOOD IDEA
CREATE BRAND AWARENESS.

BUT -I always mention this in my lectures and to clients.
Advertising will not make a bad product better. Advertising will only make a bad product fail faster.

I love doing ads and commercials. That's where the money is.
 
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Alex H. said:
There's a book shop near my office. It's small, obscure... few people know it's there. It relies on word-of-mouth and regular/faithful customers, and it's still not pulling its own after several years of operation...
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That's a good story Alex, and a perfect example of what I'm talking about with the Auto Glass Express spot above, and what J refers to. Spots like this can be produced very inexpensively, fairly quickly, and local broadcasters can steer you through to a package you can afford. Just call and ask to talk to sales. I don't know about local cable, but most TV stations now have various packages that include web banners or even spots that can be purchased as part of a package. You might even be able to get some help from their staff in edits, graphics, etc. at a cut rate. Actually, I know you can, as that's what I do sometimes.

I would guess that it nearly every instance, if you have a decent product and run a good business, and use common sense through your choices of production and airtime purchase, your profits will increase. Actually, I know it will, that's why these spots haven't changed much in the last three decades.
 
Commercials inform and create brand awareness, especially for passive viewers, where I think it's partially working at a subconscious level.

...Myself, I'm not a passive viewer, I hunt down what I watch, so unless I want to see a commercial I automatically skip them, even if it means leaving the room.

The one exception is commercials shown before movie trailers, where unless I've brought something to keep myself busy while I'm waiting for the movie to start, I'll end up watching a bunch of crappy ads and making mental notes about how much I hate the product being advertised. :-)
 
I get so irritated at bad commercials, it actually does the opposite for me. When companies promote their products in a way that actually insults my intelligence, or in an untruthful way that misleads the consumer, I boycott them. Other companies, like big pharma make me sick.

At first I thought some of the allstate commercials were funny, now they suck to. Kind of like gieko, they find a decent formula, then do it to death until it becomes lame.
 
Ted Ramasola said:
I love doing ads and commercials. That's where the money is.
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I find it laughable that there are so many filmmakers here who scoff at the idea of commercials. You're not ALL darling indie directors and DPs, are you? Surely a ton of you would be living as paupers if you didn't do ads.
 
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