Once upon a time, consumers barely had enough time to run to the bathroom during a commercial. Today, however, you can do an entire load of laundry in the time it takes a dozen or more commercials to air. Unfortunately, advertisers don’t have a clue that they’ve alienated almost an entire nation of viewers. Now, instead of watching TV commercials, an entire population of TV viewers will happily vault over furniture if need be to smash the mute button or fast-forward through them at every break. How did this happen? Simple, read on.
- • Forced Diversity: Everyone knows that representation is important, but you’d have to be Stevie Wonder not to see the forced diversity in today’s commercials. The average representation today includes 6+ black, 1 Hispanic, 1 Asian, 1 white (female) and 1 male (mostly background). Ads built to reflect this gross distortion of the world are recognized by viewers as pandering and it’s only sowing division.
- • Bumbling White Males: Why is it that so many TV commercials portray white men as stupid, feminized, stay-at-home dopes who are, at best, toxic. This is another case of advertisers trying to shape the culture rather than reflect it. Wake up, advertisers, women still like the idea of a traditional masculine man.
- • Pushing Social Issues: Advertisers have this silly notion that brands need to take a stand on social issues. The reality is, consumers don’t care where brands stand on social issues. They don’t care what Pepsi has to say about Black Lives Matter; they only care about what’s in the Pepsi can.
- • Commercials Are Too Loud: Why do so many TV commercials air at twice the volume of the programs viewers want to watch? Even if the volume isn't loud, there's the commercial spokesperson screaming at viewers with ear-piercing idiocy. Being a boisterous blowhard doesn’t endear them to anyone. It only turns people off to the message and the product they’re trying to sell. Just ask any viewer who has watched a Pooph! commercial.
- • Commercials Are Offensive: Some advertisers rely on shock value to get noticed, while others push the limits of what’s acceptable in TV advertising. Take the Gillette commercial for the Venus Pubic Hair and Skin Razor. It’s filled with gratuitous imagery and overt talk of pubic hair. It’s not the job of advertisers to push the envelope of good taste.
- • Celebrity Spokespeople: Does anyone really believe that Shaquille O’Neal uses Epson printers and insures his cars with The General? Of course not. Yet Shaq-centered ads for both have been running for years. The biggest problem with celebrity endorsements is that most consumers only see celebrity commercials as a big fat endorsement check. People who have that much money are not concerned about saving money on products. If they need it, they buy it…….and the consumers knows that.
- • Viewers Can’t Tell What the Commercial Is For: It’s bad enough to sit through a TV commercial and have no idea what it’s for. It’s even worse when the logo pops at the end and viewers realize that nothing they’ve seen in the past 30 or 60 seconds has even the slightest connection to the brand or product the ad was meant to advertise.
