I saw a bunch of commercials all in a row last Tuesday, broadcast live. Remarkable!
At the time, I remembered thinking that the premiere of “The Late Show with
Stephen Colbert” is sure attracting a lot more younger-skewing first-night advertisers than the typical Letterman program did.
But then I remembered, I hadn’t seen live
Letterman commercials for years. He was permanently DVRed and from that thought, it occurred to me that I probably avoid far more commercials than I see.
It’s a game
advertisers play with consumers. We aren’t that easy to get, although, but there are more and more attempts.
Ad blockers are another obstacle for content makers. AdAge.com
recently pointed out that watching streaming versions of network shows has now become a bad business because ad blockers can eliminate all those commercials, too, just like your DVR, with your help,
can.
“A streaming episode of ‘Food Fighters’ on NBC.com recently began with a 30-second spot for Verizon and threaded in commercials for Bank of America, Fiat,
Amazon, Microsoft, ‘Mad Max: Fury Road,’ Ford, Pristiq, Subaru, Hotels.com, Old El Paso, Straight Talk Wireless, Bon Appetit Pizza, Total Wireless, Lyrica, Verizon again and other NBC
programming,” AdAge reported. “Viewers using AdBlock could watch the
hourlong episode without seeing any of the ads.”
This isn’t the huge problem is may at first appear because a lot of consumers access networks via TV Everywhere apps, or
on connected TVs and that pretty much stops the blocking. But it’s a big enough problem that CBS.com and Hulu and others block the blockers.
If you’re using one, those
content providers will advise you to disable your blocker and then come back to watch.
A better solution might be to cut viewers a break. That many commercials during that
“Food Fighters” episode just compels a sensible viewer to rebel. Online content providers could limit their damage if they showed the slightest concern about limiting our exposure.
That’s why I doubt there’s much of an upside by content provider to ask viewers to whitelist them so ad blockers won’t stop their blurbs. This approach appeals to my sense
of humor. It also reveals publishers’ sense of vanity. One of the guiding true-isms of advertising has to be that, generally but overwhelmingly, people don’t care about your sales pitch
enough to do something to facilitate it.
Especially when, as a result of your fair-is-fair acquiescence, you’re greeted with an armada of advertising.
As ad blocking now
extends Apple’s new iOS 9 and to Android mobile phones and tablets, it threatens to put an advertising lid on mobile just as watching video via smartphones is at a crescendo. The way for ads to
stay unblocked is to make better ads, target them better and quit sticking them, in profusion, where they don’t belong. I’d never say never.
But I will say, regrettably, none of
that is likely to happen.
pj@mediapost.com