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July 26, 2004Commercials as nano-sitcoms...
I was at the gym this morning, watching the TV while I was on the treadmill because it was better than watching how slowly the seconds passed on the control panel, when I happened to see two or three particularly funny advertisements in a row. It hit me. While people would roll their eyes if I were to try and posit “sitcom as extended commercial” as a new idea, I suddenly realized that it works both ways. Just as a sitcom is a 30-minute commercial, many commercials are 15- or 30-second sitcoms.
Most commercials are funny these days, as humor is an efficient means of hooking the audience quickly—no small priority when you only get them for a fraction of a minute. They entertain us with the Del Taco guy or the Geico gecko or the AFLAC goose, or the guy getting nailed in the crotch with the golf ball (and thank you, chipshot.com, for that last one—the best commercial ever). Then, while there’s still some time left, they give us the straight-up, the actual pitch: “Company X is doing such-and-such for X amount of money.” Sometimes just the company name suffices. They’ve entertained us and we know who to thank. In the backs of our heads, we’ll think kindly on that business when we hear their name, subconsciously fueled by a foggy, aggregate memory of all the good times (in 15- or 30-second increments) we’ve had with them.
If I had a functioning TV, and if I really cared, I suppose my next step would be to time the humor in commercials versus the pitch and see if the ratios at all resemble those of commercials-to-programming, thus finding out whether my theory holds water.
Interestingly enough, a few minutes after this morning workout epiphany, the news show I was watching mentioned the unveiling of a network in Britain dedicated solely to TV commercials.
Posted by patrick at July 26, 2004 09:53 AM
CommentsY'know, I think humor in commercials backfires for me, because I can remember a lot of funny commercials and have not a clue what company pitched them. Sure, some of them are easy to remember, like Afflack -- but then again, those commercials aren't funny.
Of course, I'm usually not looking at the TV when a commercial comes on, so they have a harder job of hooking me, but there's another interesting tactic that commercials use which does make me look. No dialogue. Sometimes, no sound. Nothing like sudden silence from the screen to play the ol' "Ah! Made you look" game.
Posted by: Jon Bastian at July 26, 2004 10:03 PM
It usually backfires for me, too--but at least they're spending their soulless cash on keeping me amused without getting any sort of return on their investment (from me specifically).
Posted by: Patrick Seitz at July 27, 2004 09:12 AM
Wait a sec...isn't the spokesanimal for AFLAC a duck? Anyway, I generally remember which commercial belongs to which company, but it never gives me incentive to go out and buy whatever they're selling. I have my little laugh and move on the the next.
Posted by: Steph at July 27, 2004 07:35 PM
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