I get American network TV channels (CBS, NBC, etc.) and there’s one oddity I notice with car commercials. There’s always local dealerships with crappy, low-budget, locally targeted commercials. Sometimes I’ve seen ones with slightly better production values when dealerships team up (like, say, commercials sponsored by ‘Your New England Ford Dealers’).
Here in Canada I’ve never seen a local commercial. We get the high-quality productions that I assume are country-wide. Is there some sort of deal between dealerships in Canada and the manufacturers where, say, dealerships pay the manufacturer directly and the manufacturer airs the commercials everywhere, whereas American dealerships are on their own?
I just find it odd, because I’m sure some of those American dealerships are bigtimers but it makes me think of the stereotype of the ‘Crazy Bob’s Used Junkers!’ because the commercials have such bad production values.
What American channels do you receive? Many far-flung communities throughout Canada carry network affiliates from Buffalo. Being a smaller and more working class/blue collar metropolitan area, production values for most local commercials are horrendous. (Lower quality video as opposed to a more refined look seen in larger city and national commercials, primitive chyron, only two or three voiceover talents for everything, long studio jingles for attorneys, nursing homes, medical home care supply stores and other products and services that just shouldn’t have them, and so on). If you’re getting stations from Seattle or Detroit, the production values are probably going to be a couple of orders of magnitude higher.
Boston everything, except for CBS, which is Minneapolis.
I’m guessing I just live in too small of a place for a lot of local commercials. I’ve seen some, but the vehicle ones always get to me because I’m so used to the national ads.
I don’t get what you’re saying here. You see commercials that specifically mention a local dealer by name, but you think are run country wide? What’s the point in that? No one is going to drive from Montreal to Ottowa to buy a car, regardless of the price.
From what I’ve seen, there are two types of car commercials - the ones the manufacturers run, to advertise their brand or a specific model, which are all over the place, and the much less common local ones by a dealership advertising their price/service/selection.
I think what Kushiel’s saying is that in his locale, they see only the first kind of commercial and that local dealerships generally don’t advertise on television.
Don’t forget the ones by the regional dealer associations. They’re often of the same quality as the national ads. The national ads never mention pricing, lease rates, etc. Those are all regional, and sometimes regional dealer association. Similar, but different, in that some are paid for by the company, and others paid for using stock footage and local information by the deal assoc.