TruTV - Advertising Demographics Mystery

Cafe Society
1

Not sure if this is better for Cafe Society or IMHO …

Yesterday I discovered TruTV, a cable/satellite channel apparently devoted to car chases, race crashes, police videos, etc.

I watched 90 minutes of a show named something like “Most Shocking: Amerca’s Best Car Chases”. As you’d expect, it’s video of high speed car chases, crashes, & cops arresting folks, all with a cheesy voiceover that would make ol’ Jack “Moralizer” Webb proud. Not my usual TV fare, but I admit I like slumming now and again.

With that background, here’s my observation & my confused question.

There were two distinct kinds of commercial break, and they seemed to alternate. One included Tempupedic beds, All State insurance, some breakfast food, and Claratin allergy medicine. In other words, a mixed bag of products aimed at generic age 35-50 Middle America. So far so sensible.

The other commercial break mystifies me completely.

It had an ad for Activia health yogurt, featuring 30-ish women eating yogurt & (almost) talking about constipation. Then an ad for L’Oreale (spelling?) hair color, distinctly aimed at the 20-ish female set. Then an ad for expensive uber-hi-tech makeup. And finally another ad for another female oriented product, either an anti-depressant or a weight loss pill.

All 4 of these ads were aimed at young women as women, not as mothers or as spouses / GFs. It’s all about you, honey, seemed to be the tone of each of them. (I’m not objecting, just explaining.)
Now my question: I just can’t see the logic of a commercial break aimed at single 25 year old women with disposable income running on a show full of car crashes, sleazy meth runners, and angelic cops.

I would imagine almost no women who fit the advertisers’ desired demographic would be watching the show. OTOH, the advertisers are a lot more media-savvy than I, and they’re the ones voting with their ad dollars.

What gives?

2

WAG – young women with disposable income are watching because their SO’s are watching. Those kinds of programs are good filler. TruTV is my husband’s go-to network when nothing else is on, especially on weekends.

3

Further WAG, women don’t want us to know they love this stuff.

My mom loves TruTV, watches it all the time. So does my grandma. We don’t get the channel at home, but my wife will start watching if someone turns it on when we’re not home. And she’s a fan of Cops/America’s Most Wanted, which is more or less the same thing, just on Fox.

I know, ancedote /= data, but I don’t think it’s odd that advertisers believe women love TruTV.

4

TruTV is the channel that used to be called CourtTV, which was known for broadcasting trials.

5

Whenever I see a spot that looks particularly out of place, I assume it’s an example of a Run of Schedule buy on the part of the advertiser or their agent.

6

I watch it sometimes, and I’m a woman in my 50’s. Have you seen the ID channel - Investigative Discovery or something… It has lots of forensic type murder shows.

7

I suspect that many of these ads are targeted towards women who are older than you think they are (or, are older than the actresses shown in the ads).

Activia’s spokesperson is Jamie Lee Curtis, who is 51. It’s primary benefit is to aid with “slow intestinal transit”, which, as I understand it, is an issue that becomes more noticeable as women age.

While some younger women certainly use L’Oreal to color their hair, it’s more commonly used by women who want to cover gray hair…which means it’s largely targeting women over the age of 30, at least.