OF3-5/29/07 8:25AM FIGURING OUT WAYS TO FORCE VIEWERS TO WATCH TV ADS
Shame on you America. It appears that you have been violating one of life's ground rules. You are watching TV, but skipping the spot breaks. On the barometer of moral turpitude that is right down there with watching Bill Moyers and never pledging. But be warned: the battle has been joined.
The figures are truly frightening. To the broadcast industry, anyway. 17 percent of American homes now have digital video recorders. Of those, close to half of those in the magical 18-to-49 demographic are not watching in real time, and of those, 60% are deliberately skipping the ads.
For a while, clever product placement was enough to stump the ad skippers, but suppose a sponsor wants to do more than just expose a logo?
You have to make the commercial pause-worthy. You have to make it so compelling that a viewer will stop in mid-skip, press the pause button, and deliberately watch the commercial.
The CW network advertised hair products by creating mini interviews with network stars who used them. TNT aired a mini-drama, and then directed viewers to want to see the conclusion to a web site where the sponsor's ads were unavoidable.
Court TV puts clues to its 25,000 murder mystery game in the commercial breaks, and even Jerry Seinfeld will return to NBC next fall doing comedy skits in the commercial breaks.
DO you get the picture? You don't have a chance. Save yourselves! Convert to radio before it's too late!
Actually, this shouldn't be anything to worry about - if we just think this through. On one level, it is shameless manipulation of viewers who are simply trying to get their entertainment more efficiently. TO be able to watch an hour h\show in 40 minutes with like getting a third of your life back.
But, if the purpose of watch TV is indeed TO BE entertained, and the commercials are just as entertaining as the surrounding show, what's the problem? If the commercials are entertaining enough, conceivably, Super Bowl rules might kick in - where you skip the programming so you can watch the commercials.
Then - you can watch an hour of TV in just TWENTY minutes, and get 2/3rd of your life back.
The Osgood File. Dave Ross on the CBS Radio Network.
The Osgood File. May 29, 2007 |
|
|
