Consumer Appeal
Advertisers of today have strategically combined commercials andtelevision shows in order to sell products. Gloria Steinem discusses a similaridea in her article, “Sex, Lies, and Advertising.” She repeatedly demonstrateshow advertisements, particularly in magazines, are complementary to the articlesaround them. In the same manner, so are commercials to television programs.
They are both aimed at the same groups or types of people, such as sex, age,gender, etc.
Many times, the time of day or day of the week a show is aired has a lotto do with the types of viewers the program will attract. Thus, the types ofcommercials will also differ. On Saturday nights at 10:00 p.m., the program”Profiler” airs, a mystery-thriller series. The story line is of a young,beautiful white female trying to capture a serial killer/stalker, who killed herhusband and continues to stalk her. The show is very detail oriented, in thesense that the viewers need to pay close attention to what is going on to beable to follow along with the mystery. It tends to “suck you in”, so to say,because it causes the viewers to become involved and engrossed in solving themystery.
The assumed target of this series is mainly adults over the age oftwenty-five, with the exceptions of those viewers that do not watch it at thetime it actually airs, but they tape it to watch later. Because of the time itairs, the viewers are very select: children under the age of ten are presumablyin bed, junior and senior high schoolers are out, and anyone out of high schooland under the age of twenty-five is either out or working. This leaves amajority of the older crowds watching the program.
According to Gloria Steinem, the target of the television show will bethe same as that of the commercials. This proved to be true with “Profiler” andits commercials. There were a total of twenty commercials aired. They includedand Allstate Insurance ad, a number of car dealers and promotions, chewing gum,beauty products, medicine, food, and television satellites. Most of them hadfemale voice-overs with predominantly white actors and/or actresses. The actorsand/or actresses were also good-looking, thin, and of high- to medium-status.
In Steinem’s terms, and as mentioned by Cayo Gamber, an advertisement isgenerally linked to the article, or in this case, the program. The show isseen as a “complementary copy” for the commercials; because it included certainaccessories to a person in the same life-style as the characters in the program.
The cars advertisements, in particular, were at times found in the show.
However, the other products weren’t really enforced by the program. Above all,the program did help maintain the intended target interested and tuned in tothat specific channel.
The benefit of airing commercials at that specific time of “Profiler” isgreat. It airs at a time that is not too late and, therefore the commercialswill not be forgotten. Many times, specifically the Wrigley’s Winterfresh , theMaxwell House, and the Allstate Insurance, the commercials were loud and peppy.
The Wrigley’s Winterfresh commercial actually shows the product, the pack of gumeven has the price on it. It is basically about many different people that arehaving so much fun’, while chewing this gum. The music and idea of so much fun,entices the viewer to want to buy it. The setting of the Maxwell House is whatcatches the attention of the viewer. The commercial shows a family having funin the beautiful country, in the background, there is a fun-loving country songplaying. These were just a few of the examples of the commercials with catchyphrases and loud music.
On the other hand, some of the commercials were a bit more comical, suchas the Lay’s Baked Potato Chips. This commercials shows Miss Piggy and twosuper models eating Lay’s Baked Potato Chips at a classy restaurant. Then,Antonio Sabato, Jr. (a good-looking actor) walks in and sweeps Miss Piggy off ofher feet. He then tries to eat some of her chips. Appalled, Miss Piggy sendshim flying due to his assumption that he could eat her chips.
Changing to somewhat dull and boring commercials were the advertisementsfor Lady Speed Stick, Oil of Olay Wrinkle Cream, Excellence Cream hair color,and the new long distance saver 10-321. The reason these commercial may havenot been as interesting, is because it was most probably directed to an oldercrowd. That is to say, those that need wrinkle cream, hair color to cover grays,or a new long distance savings plan. These commercials, in comparison to theothers analyzed, were not as interesting or lively.
In the words of Janelle Costa,”The commercials sometimes determine whetheror not I actually want to finish watching a program. If the commercials areboring, I’ll change the channels.” This is the same perspective most say theytake. So, watching a program soon turns into a fight or struggle between thechannel with a moderately good show, that has entertaining commercials. Do youfind yourself turning away from a program because of its lack of goodcommercials?
WORKS CITED IN TEXT
- Steinem, Gloria: Sex, Lies, and Advertising; Course Packet, English 11,George Washington University, 1997. Music and Movies
