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Will going back to the fifties help us?

We all know what we think about TV commercials: Tivos and remotes rule when the tube is on. That’s how most people feel when they see about any promo. “Please make it go away.”

Here’s a novel idea for the TV advertising world which, if implemented, might keep lots of people glued to the screen when the commercial comes. It sure would keep me right there…

Our friend and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban says bring back the live commercial so the viewer (nor the advertiser) will not know what to expect until it happens.

TV advertising has been same-old same-old for 50 years.

Where all think alike, no one thinks very much.

About the author

Kim Klaver

4 Comments

  • So, is it the medium or the message that matters?

    Or is the problem the ‘massage’? …whereby we’re fed promos which are generally so fake or just plain dull that ‘we don’t care what’s happened’? If so, how then does ‘the viewer will not know what to expect until it happens’ solve the issue?

    And, how many of us could (even if we bothered) readily discern between ‘live’ and ‘pseudo-live’?

    Surely, in our ‘too much to do and not enough time – and we’re not interested anyway’ lives, we’d continue to fast-forward through ads?

    Perhaps the key here is relevance – ‘respect your audience’ by treating them intelligently and not wasting their time.

  • I guess I was assuming the live commercials would be fun like what he suggested, not the ridiculously predictable and boring stuff they put on TV now. 🙂 Kim

  • No harm in hopin’… perhaps I’m just too cyncial. 😉

    ‘Something happens to a man (or woman) when they put on a business suit and become a corporate executive’ (or NM-er)… if we could treat each other as humans – rather than interact in the role of vendor/client/whatever – wouldn’t things be so much different? Or am I now hoping for too much?

  • Something strange indeed happens when someone talks about a product they like, once they’re selling it.

    I have an entire chapter in a book devoted to the very strange language behavior that people all fall into. It’s so predictable I gave it a name – “seller talk.”

    If we could just talk about stuff we sell the way we do when we’re NOT selling it, all would be well.

    The book referred to above is here. http://www.bananamarketing.com/paperback.html

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