C O M M E R C I A L S
. . .DO YOU LIKE THEM?
Q U I C K:
What’s your Favorite Commerical?
What’s the Commercial you dislike the most?
It’s hard watching your favorite TV Show
It’s hard watching a Sporting Event
It’s hard flipping through television at any time and not getting caught by one;
But hold on there
Caring Catalysts
the Stats are out:
Though marketers probably don’t want to think about it, Americans really don’t like advertising very much. A 2012 survey by Mancx found that advertising is a big complaint about the internet (54 percent of those surveyed think there are too many ads), and a Gallup survey found that 37 percent of people have a negative view of the advertising industry overall. A Harris poll conducted last summer found that millennials—that darling group that every advertiser is courting—are especially ad-averse: seventy-four percent object to being singled out by brands in their social media feeds, and a whopping 56 percent have quit a social media site just to get away from the ads.
So it’s worth pointing out a finding by a just-released study from the Burson-Marsteller Fan Experience (BMFE): fifty-three percent of Americans say they’d be disappointed if the Super Bowl went commercial free—and that number is actually up 5 percent from last year.
Setting aside that a commercial-free Super Bowl is probably never going to happen, think about what that means: Could the Big Game possibly be the only time of year that people actually want to stare at advertising?
“Yes, without a doubt,” said BMFE chair Jason Teitler—and there’s a reason, he adds. “People want to see what the brands are doing because it constitutes entertainment.”
Another way of putting this: Most ads that Americans encounter these days—from pop-ups to pre-rolls to sponsored tweets—are usually not fun. But Super Bowl ads usually are, so watching them doesn’t feel like the poke in the shoulder that ads so often are.
BMFE’s findings (drawn from a sample group of 1,000 Super Bowl fans) mirror some of those revealed last summer by HubSpot Research. HubSpot polled 1,055 consumers and learned that 85 percent of them believed “not all ads are bad,” yet many people found advertising to be intrusive, unprofessional, or even insulting to their intelligence.
Another key finding of BMFE’s survey: Not only do Americans generally enjoy watching Super Bowl spots, they wish brands would quit releasing them days or even weeks before the game.
“We found a lot of people who’d prefer to see the ads for the first time during the game,” Teitler said. “They want the surprise factor.” If a brand is going to drop $5 million for a “big punch,” he said, “why not do it in the biggest way possible?”
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. . .
Still not a big fan, you?
But in many ways,
though we might not like them a whole
Our day to day
L I F E
is in full-out-right-in-search
of a Commercial Break. . .
Hence,
we go to dinner
we go to the movies
we go to concerts
we got to play
we go on vacations
we go to museums
we go to galleries
we go shopping
WE GO. . .
Maybe the
U L T I M A T E C O M M E R C I A L
is the one advertising
what it BEGS us to buy
Maybe the Utmost Commercial of all
is the one that touts
is the one that urges
is the one that illustrates
is the one that inspires
is the one that motivates
us to
G I V E
(for free with no motive to receive or benefit)
S T O P
D o n ‘ t t o u c h
T H A T
c h a n n e l