It Pays To Advertise

Will Rogers once said "Hen eggs are more popular than duck eggs because a hen cackles to advertise her product."

How apt are you to buy a product you've never heard of? And how often have you seen a product displayed and said "Oh I've heard of that, it's supposed to be pretty good." Chances are you learned of the product via commercial advertising.

Some commercials are very clever while many others seem to me to be a waste of the advertiser's money. Often they fail to really advertise, just say and show a bunch of silly "stuff" and some really annoy me. Do they bother you?

Often I have no idea who the sponsor is or the name of their product. But, they must know something I don't because they keep doing it. Remember "Where's the Beef?" I don't remember who that sponsor was but I sure do remember who gave us "See the USA, in a Chevrolet." That was a good commercial.

A catchy phrase in a commercial should include the advertiser's name or the name of the product. Some commercials annoy me so much I grab the clicker immediately. One reason is the content, the other is that I've often seen the same one too many times.

Would you buy a certain make of truck because the commercial showed it going through the mud? Not me. They'd be better off telling me about the suspension system, transmission, fuel consumption, etc., and the options available.

And why do commercials seem so loud? I'm listening to someone read the news at a comfortable level and all of a sudden a commercial blares out at me and I either change channels or hit the mute button.

Some commercials are interesting and/or entertaining but after seeing one ten or more times it becomes less attractive. After about twenty times I can no longer stand it and it gets "clicked." With some, I can tell right away I'm not going to like it and "zap."

Commercials didn't used to be like that. Did you ever hear Joel Aldred read a Household Finance commercial? Excellent advertising.

I noticed while visiting in Germany a few years ago there were no commercials during the TV shows. Only between shows. So, what we see here as a half hour show, would run in Germany without commercials and end after about twenty minutes. Then, they'd run ten minutes of commercials. The commercials had to be interesting and/or entertaining so people would stick around and watch them. What a concept.

Celebrities get paid huge sums of money to endorse a product. I'd rather they'd save that money and lower the price.

I don't like to hear radio and TV stations telling us how great they are, in fact I'm tired of it. I can judge them for myself.

However, we can learn a lot about a product from a good commercial that is interesting, informative and does not insult our intelligence. If they can't think of good things to tell us about their product, they should make the product better then tell us about it. If they have a good product, they just need to introduce it and their customers will advertise it for them.

Some companies are pretty smart, they just put their names on the outside of clothing and people actually walk around in public advertising the product and they not only don't get paid for advertising it, they paid extra money to do that. What if you had a house built and the builder wrote his name permanently across the front of your house? I may be different but I just don't like to wear clothing that makes me a walking billboard.

Commercial broadcasting is funded by advertising dollars. Without it, we'd still be paying for a license to own a receiver. Without advertising, Internet Service Providers would be unaffordable for most of us. Without radio and TV advertising to supplement ticket sales, our professional sports teams could not afford these huge salaries.

Without advertising, your morning newspaper would still be a tree and without advertising, we wouldn't get junk mail. Hmmm.

Just like we need traffic lights and City Hall, we need advertising, whether we like it or not. Thanks for listening.