• by John Gaffney , September 8, 2002

Friends Don’t Let Friends Advertise Irresponsibly: Can the advertising industry police itself? I think it can and responsible advertising will be the key to consumer and government acceptance of hard liquor ads on TV. The long-debated appearance of liquor on TV is on. Diageo has signed as an official sponsor of the Washington Redskins of the NFL. That gets them TV access. Southern Comfort is pinning a lot of its rebranding efforts in cable TV. I don’t think network spots are far off for SoCo. If these initial appearances go heavy on young actors and appeal to the younger edge of the demographic scale, they will fuel more lame talk shows than the Iraqi war debate. If they send a message that you will be more successful with the opposite sex if you drink hard liquor products, that will raise the ire of media critics too. Advertisers and ad agencies need to be sensitive to the climate these ads will be seen in. This situation needs to be treated as the beginning of a new category on TV. You don’t need a home run first time out.

The Exact Length Of A Hit Single: Used to be a record industry rule that a hit single had to be under three minutes to get radio play. Aeropostale has started running a new spot on MTV that clocks in at 2:30 and both MTV and the advertiser are hoping for a hit. I believe a year down the road that this will be a very big story. Commercials aimed at teens and young adults will start looking a lot like music videos – in content and length – as 2003 kicks off.

Still Training: I don’t know what *Nsync’s Lance Bass’s problem is, but I’m still training in hopes of being included in the next space station launch. No interview requests yet.