NY Times - Change the frickin' creative already! (NYC local commercial rant)

The BBQ Pit
1

“Hi! I’d like to start getting home delivery of the New York Times!”

<change channel to Comedy Central>

“Hi! I’d like to start getting home delivery of the New York Times!”

<change channel to VH1>

“Hi! I’d like to start getting home delivery of the New York Times!”

AAAAAAAARRRGGGGH!

Yes, NY Times, I know you’re in the midst of a subscription push, but why the hell can’t you mix up your TV creative a bit? I’m getting so freaking tired of hearing…

  1. “The only thing I enjoy more than doing the crossword puzzle is actually finishing it.”

  2. “She heads for Arts & Leisure. I pick up the magazine.”

  3. “Sunday was made for the New York Times.”

I get it, I get it, I get it. Now pick up the phone, call your direct response agency and repeat after me…

“I’d like to start getting business delivery of new commercials for the New York Times.”

Lemme give you a few tips about direct response advertising.

  1. The minute you debut a new commercial, it starts to “burn out.” That is, without the benefits of optimization by creative, media placement or offer, your commercial will generate fewer responses per spot over time.

  2. To achieve optimal response, you want a few pieces of creative running on multiple cable networks. You check the response rates by placement and optimize this over the course of the campaign. The return on investment is significantly lower if you’re only running one spot. On the other hand, you’ll pay for new creative several times over in the form of new subscriptions if you vary things up a bit.

  3. People (like me) start to get annoyed if you continually run the same ad over and over and over ad nauseum. This produces a negative experience for the consumer. Negative experiences make viewers change channels. They also make people less likely to convert over the long run.

Now call that ad agency and tell them to start producing some new spots already.

2

Hah, it’s not just local, we get that ad for the NYT here in Chicago as well. Be afraid, they’re “spamming” us too with that same old thing.

3

Look, I see the exact same ads here in Knoxville, and two weeks ago I saw them in Atlanta.

I just ignore them now. I didn’t subscribe the first time, why should I subscribe now? I read what I want to online.

4

Subscribe or the lady who would like to get that home delivery will send her large teeth out to get you!

5

What I hate is the actress who puts the emphasis on the wrong words: “The only thing I enjoy more than doing the crossword puzzle is actually finishing it.”

What, is she reading the script phonetically?

6

I wonder why the caller needs to specify which newspaper they want to receive delivery of. Maybe they’re afraid the NY Times will sign them up for deliveries of the Washington Post?

7

They’re out here in San Francisco, too. God help us all.

8

We’re even getting spammed with it here in LA. Like we don’t already have our own Times bugging us to subscribe.

It’s getting as annoyingly repetitive as those stupid AOL ads, and at least they rotate a coupla different ones.

9

The lady who says "“Hi! I’d like to start getting home delivery of the New York Times!” sounds so darn tentative. She sounds like she is really nervous to be making that phone call–like they’re gonna reject her or something.

Lady: “Hi! I’d like to start getting home delivery of the New York Times!”
Customer Service Person: “I’m sorry, but you’re not worthy of the New York Times. How’d you like a subscription to USA Today instead?”

10

These commercials have been driving me crazy too. But you left out one, that they don’t play so much anymore.

“I love the Arts.”

Just because she has dangly fucking earrings and a clay spinning wheel in her apartment?!?!!? Makes you want to punch her.

Also, if the only thing you like more than doing the crossword puzzle is finishing it, you need to get out of the house.

11

And, she doesn’t look happy at all, while she’s delivering that line. She’s grimacing, with a tense, forced grin.

12

Yeah, annoying commercials, could have gone in that thread, but…

Am I the only one bothered by the use of ‘creative’ as a noun? If verbing weirds language, what’s nouning do?

The '60’s, feh.