Commentary

What's Acceptable' And 'Unacceptable' About TV Commercials?

by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, September 14, 2016

So the same company that has no problem offering free ad-blocking software to digital media consumers, now wants those same consumers to get “acceptable” advertising.

Ad Block Plus is going in this direction, pitching this “acceptable advertising” thing to digital media publishers.

Hmmm.. . The controversy around this kind of activity continues -- with many calling it extortion.

But that’s not my complaint here. I’m wondering where traditional TV has this kind of issue -- the space between advertising avoidance and “acceptable” TV commercials.

TV's “ad-blocking” activity of course comes from a manual approach for advertising avoidance: DVR time-shifting. (Dish Network has a more automated effort for viewers of the four prime-time networks).

The “acceptable” ads are another matter. For decades, TV networks have had standard and practices concerning the creative of TV commercials.

Still, stuff gets through the cracks. Should you become queasy, say, over seeing TV commercials featuring some horror-filled imagery of a new video game, that might not be “acceptable.”

In theory, maybe one’s favorite TV network shouldn’t be targeting certain people with e creative like this -- even if you're a young male. Traditional age and gender targeting have been longtime tools for media planners. But where is the ‘queasy’ -- and other harder to determine -- media planning factors in these computations?

TV networks need to find a way to build and continue viewing relationships. Digital media has a lot more difficult hurdles -- especially including viewability, fraud, and transparency.

By the same token, TV networks don’t get penalized on the same order that digital media publishers do when it comes to its viewers/users avoiding/blocking marketing messages from their advertising clients.

That’s because TV commercial fast-forwarding isn’t an exact science. The Video Advertising Bureau now says 77% of prime-time viewing is consumed live. Other estimates show that about 50% of the time, TV viewers are fast-forwarding through commercials.

Is that still “acceptable” for TV networks?

3 comments about "What's Acceptable' And 'Unacceptable' About TV Commercials?".

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Doug Garnett from Protonik, LLC, September 14, 2016 at 6:33 p.m.
It's important to note that the incredibly rapid rise in consumer demand for ad blocking co-incides with digitals aggressive attempts to make ads more "relevant" to the consumer.

That suggests to me that "relevance" is only something meaningful to marketers and ends up NOT meaning more relevant to consumers.

As to the last point about skipping not being rife... TV ads are inherently more acceptable in some ways. While they interrupt programming, that's expected. So rather than having to get your attention aggressively, they have an easier job - and that makes them able to be less obnoxious.

But digital success requires that the ads jump up and down and yell and block your path merely to get your attention. (And Huffington Post is the most obnoxious I've seen for this.) Digital are much more obnoxious - because they HAVE to draw your attention away from what you'd rather be doing - like reading that blog post you found or watching that YouTube video blog.

Once saw something written by Bob Garfield that projected that digital would be nicely quiet and get rid of that obnoxiousness of TV. I wrote a blog at the time observing that I didn't think his eyes were open yet (they seem to be now). Because digital reminds me a lot of an airport where you're hounded constantly by people trying to take your bags (for a fee) find you a car (for a fee) get you a hotel (for a fee)...
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Linda Moskal from WNPV Radio, September 15, 2016 at 4:07 p.m.

Does anyone care if tv commercials are obnoxious? If you watch "live" or can't time shift and zip through them, they make the perfect break to go get a snack or use the bathroom.

Doug Garnett from Protonik, LLC, September 15, 2016 at 4:50 p.m.

Interesting, Linda, that your comment notes that the ads offer a solid, reliable, and predictable. If it is advertising, there is NO way to craft them so that nobody dislikes them.

That's the fundamental truth of advertising, marketing, sales, and any effort that lifts sales.

So you have a predictable and appropriate way to skip them if you're without a TiVO. How would you do that online? It's pretty hard work and frustrating. But I'll be you also have developed ways you live with the ads you dis-like when you're online.

Yet your comment seems to do that age old thing of blaming TV far more than other ads. Yet TV continues to be the single best way to build brand, introduce new products, build market share, etc...