Attention Deficit in Advertising. 560 words.
From the "What's My Problem?" Series.
Who are they marketing to? Six year olds? What’s my problem? I’m having a little bit of trouble trying to figure out the current concept of TV and radio advertising.
I’m not at all sure what exactly is going on here. The other day while on my way to work, an advertisement for an large “Custom Windows and Siding” company comes over the car radio. The intro to the AD is a multitude of loudly blowing horns. As if that wasn’t annoying enough, the pitch man is talking so damn fast that I can only understand every fourth or fifth word. On top to of that, they have to repeat the phone number three or four times! Eightonetwo fifty-five twenty-three.
What number is that anyway?
Come on! If I was remotely interested in the services of this company I would have written down or memorized the phone number the first time, or at least by the second time they said it. Why do they feel they need to recite it four times? My thought is that if you don’t get it after it’s been repeated twice, you aren’t going to get it at all.
Just who exactly is their target audience? ? Six year olds? Do six year old kids have custom siding and windows installed? I don’t get it.
There’s another advertisement for a discount furniture company that assaults you from both TV and radio. These AD’s feature an annoying guy who looks like a beaver and apparently thinks that if he whines at us we will rush right out and buy his cheap furniture. The entire sixty second AD is him whining about what great prices he has, “so come on down!”
Yeah, I’m on my way Bucky.
I mute the TV and change the radio station when these Ad’s come on. It’s just plain irritating. Who wants to be irritated? Show of hands?
If people are muting the sound and changing the station when certain advertisements run, there has to be something wrong with their approach.
Another ad agency, for a Asian car company, features a bunch of people singing.
“DUH!” Or maybe it’s “DOE!” I’m not sure. The whole premise of this AD is simulating slapping yourself in the forehead and saying,
“DUH! I could have bought one of these Korean pieces of junk. What was I thinking?” (Just shoot me now.)
Talk about insulting.
It seems as though a great majority of radio and TV advertising is targeted at consumers with no more than a eighth grade education, and/or an extremely short attention span.
What does that say about society in general? You have to blow a horn, ring a bell or shout at people to get their attention. Then, you have to keep it real simple, “DUH!” and you have to repeat the pertinent information three or four times, LOUDLY!
It would appear that advertising agencies believe they are dealing with room full of attention deficit people whom have not had their medication yet.
Or, maybe they believe the audience is over medicated and that’s why they have to ring the bells, blow the horns and repeat, repeat, repeat.
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Written by mia_ms_kim (891 comments posted) 13th May 2008 | You sound really annoyed, Tom. Don't blame you.
But advertising must work no matter how ridiculous some of them are, otherwise they would not spend so much money on it. I think bombarding people with their brandname work subconsciously because people tend to feel safer with things they are familiar with.
I think we do suffer from ADD today. There is so much mechanical noise around us, one becomes scatter-brained. Maybe that's why advertisers sing, scream, dance, do ridiculous things to get our attention. We are living in a mad world.
Mia  |
Written by coosh (822 comments posted) 14th May 2008 | True, some ads are slicker and more creative than others, and some advertisers have a far bigger budget and better quality agencies than others. But the bottom line is competition and one of the main problems is standing out against the sheer volume of wallpaper-like advertising in all sectors.
You remember (or think you) remember the phone number, and you know it's for windows - the irritating, insistent repetition gets your attention (enough to quote it in a piece of creative writing) and it remains in your subconscious insofar as they keep doing it and you keep tuning into that station. OK, maybe you personally won't eventually use them, but it works on a percentage basis with trade ads (send out 100,000 junk mail offers, you should get enough response to more than break even).
In the UK, this became a cult ad because it was so laughably "crap" but, commercially speaking, it was the best thing the company ever did:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8CTscW3dpI
(Those were the days, eh, when just the women did housework!! A museum piece). |
Written by TwistedTales (454 comments posted) 14th May 2008 | Hahah, I am totally with ya. There is one ad that i hate. Its about some car evaluation, and apparently if you give them a call, you are entered into a draw and can win a $1000...and repeat the thousand dollars like a thousand times as if they are giving it away to everyone. In fact, you could've gone on and on, because most ads drive you nuts.
Regards,
TT | Loudness
Written by rui (150 comments posted) 15th May 2008 | Adverts in the UK don't seem to be this bad. Yes, there are some annoying ones with people that shout their wares, or have appalling music or delivery, but occasionally they're better than the actual program on TV.
Perhaps that's just a criticism of the programming.
What really gets to me are some channels on satellite that ramp up the volume to ear-splitting levels, every adverts. Put baby to sleep, watch some rubbish on TV, then the adverts come on. Eventually, once I've regained consciousness from the auditory assault, stemmed the bleeding from my ears and swept up the broken glass, I hear it, plaintively in the background...
... "waaaaaaaaa"
So England might have more intellectually demanding adverts, but they're advertising to the deaf and will stop at nothing to bring you into their target audience.
That hit the spot - been meaning to vent that for a while. Thank you, Tom :D | Intellectually Demanding??
Written by TomOBrien (64 comments posted) 16th May 2008 | Thank you all so much for reading and commenting on my work.
rui: You are joking, right? It's an oxy-moron to have the words intellectual and advertising in the same sentence.
Some adverts are funny, some are interesting but none are intellectual anything. Most are annoying at best, down right insulting at their worst.
coosh: As I said in the piece. If I was remotely interested in the services or products being advetisied I would remember or at least write down the phone number the first time they said it. I.E. My car needs body work. I get the insurance check. An advert for a autobody shop comes on the radio or tv and I get a pen or pencil. There is no need to repeat the bloody phone number 4 or 5 times. "Eightsixohfiftytwotwentthree." Not necessary unless you believe that your audience is brain dead, or at least brain numb.
cheers all! ( 8 | Re: Intellectually Demanding??
Written by rui (150 comments posted) 16th May 2008 | Well yes, insofar as a lot of adverts over here don't actually tell you what they're for - you have to guess from the music, a catch phrase or a symbol...
I can understand perhaps reading the phone number twice. Once while you're scrabbling around trying to find pen and paper and once to write it down. | Figure it out.
Written by TomOBrien (64 comments posted) 18th May 2008 | We've got some of those as well. My wife and I play a little game where we try to figure out not so much what they are pitching but who?
"Target?" "No. Macy's, um-or Old Navy, I think."
If I can't right off figure out what or who, then I obviously don't need those products. |
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