The Energon Pub

So i the tv is on in the background. I hear "Nascar. September 11th. come to the track a fan. Leave a HERO!"

that got me thinking. what is too sacred to have for a product placement. Religious idols? Dead celebrity's? i wanna know what people think. whats stuff we shouldn't touch with advertizements, and when has it been long enough? john Wayne is in commercials and people didn't seem to get mad.

also, why the hell are there commercials "on demand". I pay for the privilage, and still get commercials? wtf? and HBO goes off the air late at night? why?

but anyway how would people feel if Michael Jackson was edited to sell products?

or what about Billy Mays? thanks to his show we could sound board him to sell almost anything. But would it be in good taste? and why not, its how he lived his life, he would have done the pitches, what would be wrong with maniplating existing footage and sound clips to pitch new products? Kinda like a mad lib. "Billy mays here with (product) does your (object/place) not (verb) like new/do you like to (task) but hate the (problem) ...

it sounds practicle, but still seems icky.

Thoughts?

I am not a fan of advertising. Yes I know it puts it's products out there BUT the way it does it now simply sucks..
Examples

Movies
You spend $7-$10 on a movie and what do you see now? Commercials BEFORE the previews.. I remember the old days when the theater screens were off until they started showing the previews. Now between movies it is one big commercial.

TV
I normally change the station during commercials but I don't always have that luxury and I notice that the commercial is LOUDER than the show you just watched.

They want to grab your attention. To do that, the audio track is electronically processed to make every part of it as loud as possible within legal limits. “Nothing is allowed to be subtle,” says Brian Dooley, Editor-At-Large for CNET.com. “Everything is loud – the voices, the music and the sound effects.”

From this article
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17229281/ns ... umer_news/

Internet
There is nothing like clicking on a website then the entire page fades away (what a way to get around the pop up blockers)for some product that you have to stare at for 10 seconds before "to skip this ad click here" pops up at the top or bottom of the page.
Pop up's are also a pain in the ass and some can still get through various pop up blockers.

People will do whatever it takes to get their product out. I have a high school friend that was in a local marketing firm and he quit after a few years on the job because he actually has morals and some of the things that were suggested doing were just not right. he never went into any real details BUT he told me that most companies will stoop to insane levels to get their product in front of the public's faces.

The statistic thrown around in Mass Media classes (which is actually a fairly old and I think conservative stat) is that the average person sees 3000 ads *a day*. This causes 'ad clutter'--that we see so many we just ignore them. Trying to stand out above the noise of this clutter, advertisers figure they should go huge--even if it's controversial, people will actually *remember* the ad, and thus, remember the product.

Snickers, last year, had an ad campaign with Mr T apparently firing Snickers bars at a scrawny dude in teeny yellow shorts who was powerwalking. The catchphrase--'Get some nuts'. I thought it was hilarious, but I'm an idiot. People were offended and the ad was withdrawn, but not before it got *FREE* play on all the cable news shows. And the fact that, seven or so months ago, I can recall the ad, shows that it stuck in my mind in the way advertisers like.

So, unfortunately, how far is too far? According to advertisers, nothing is off limits. Worse comes to worst, they get the above style Snickers publicity. They know that 'tasteless' reads to a younger demographic as hip and edgy. If they were to, say, cobble together some Billy Mays footage (and man, N_V, what is it with you and that guy?) especially if they did it really obviously and tongue-in-cheeky, the ad would totally work for a large demographic (the same demo that, I suspect, loves the Budweiser twins and the old Axe body spray commercials).

Once you're over a certain age, advertisers don't give a crap how you feel--they figure you've picked your favorite brands of everything. So they lose nothing by offending you. So, they don't care.

HK, the almighty dollah!

hellkitty wrote:Snickers, last year, had an ad campaign with Mr T apparently firing Snickers bars at a scrawny dude in teeny yellow shorts who was powerwalking. The catchphrase--'Get some nuts'. I thought it was hilarious, but I'm an idiot. People were offended and the ad was withdrawn, but not before it got *FREE* play on all the cable news shows. And the fact that, seven or so months ago, I can recall the ad, shows that it stuck in my mind in the way advertisers like.

Snickers and Mr T are still running in the UK and there are many different ones. Snickers fired from a tank and even a chopper. The same happened in the 80s with tango orange and the face slapping. Created quite a few red faces round school playgrounds. And advertisers were forced to change the advert. Also "Don't push me, push a push-pop" (Also banned) is still quite memorable to me now, and that was around 15 yr ago I think.

Name_Violation wrote:also, why the hell are there commercials "on demand". I pay for the privilage, and still get commercials?

I completely agree.

With todays technology, advertisers are forced to barrage you with advertisements even before the title of the program is even shown and advert breaks every 5 mins due to people recording the program & fastforwarding through the adverts. People will stick the kettle on so many times. Or go to the toilet. So the bombard you with advert after advert.

Junk food adverts are now banned between certain times in the UK now though. Due to the increase in fat kids.