Advertisement right now seems to be placed in between regular content, whether it’s television, radio, on Internet. It’s still a profitable industry on average, but it’s clear that companies like Facebook might be struggling to get its advertising model to succeed, especially with mobile access.
If the advertisements were really good, and you could actively choose to see which ads you wanted to see based on what you actually wanted to buy, would you watch advertisements in your own time explicitly for the purpose of watching the ads, and not as something on the side that is there on a banner, etc? If we are really a consumer society, then why does advertising have to be based on an interruption basis? Why wouldn’t people dedicate some amount of time, willingly, to watching great ads for great products and deals?
If I actually want to buy some sort of product, I will look for real information about it (and its pricing etc) while I decide such things as which brand to buy and from what seller. Fortunately, for a lot of products this can be done online quite well these days. For the most part, this sort of information is best conveyed as text and simple photographs of the product itself. If that is what you mean by a “really good ad”, then yes, I do sometimes seek them out.
I suspect, however, you do not mean these at all (real information about a product is often not even considered an ad), but ads that are to some degree entertaining. Ads that use video, voice, or fancy graphics to tryto catch my eye and appeal to me are, for the most part, not trying to be informative at all, but to play on my emotions in order to persuade me to buy products I have no need of, or, in the case of products of a type that I may need or want, to buy some particular brand, or from some particular seller, regardless of whether that brand or seller is actually going to provide the best available value for me. Why should I willingly subject myself to media that are actively trying to seduce me into irrationally based, and most probably non-optimal, buying decisions?
Where they are not outright lies, most ads are deliberately designed to mislead. Why would anyone actively cooperate in being misled?
Well, wasn’t really in my spare time, and it wasn’t for pleasure - it was part of my job, working at a TV post-production studio. They had years and years worth of spots they’d worked on or touched up, each on its own 5 minute long tape ; and they wanted to archive them all on 3h tapes before tossing the lot. And because the 3h tapes needed to be perfect and the sound just right and so forth if they ever needed those old ads again in a show or something, I had the immense pleasure of personally watching 'em all twice, once as they were being copied, then once again when a long tape was filled up to check for errors and video artifacts and such. Couldn’t even zone out.
I did that day in, day out, for three weeks straight.
Some of them were clever, many of them were terrible, some of them I still remembered from my youth, a few stayed in your head forbloodyever, but mostly hours of nothing but commercials just turned your brain into numb, hate-tinged mush.
I would not do that again for a big clock. In fact, I would probably suck cocks under the freeway overpass before I’d do it again. I’d feel less insulted at the end of the day.
Ive looked up the odd amusing ad on youtube… and dredged up some old ones for a laugh… enjoyed old ads for computer places ive found on vhs… but otherwise i hate advertising with a passion, i just dont need to see it.
:p:p My sympathies. I have always hated sales, of any kind, even bought my own Girl Scout cookies rather than go door-to-door pushing them. Just…hate it.
About a decade ago I worked, for about 4 years, for a company that is pretty much just ads. And I spent a lot of time analyzing the data pulled from said ads, and hearing about how to maximize page-views, coordinate geo-targetted ads, etc. The pay was fine, the atmosphere was fine, the people were fine…but I don’t know if I could do that again. >.<
Usually I wouldn’t but if they’re witty or creative I do enjoy some. Right now, I get a kick out of Allstate’s “Mayhem” series of commercials, they make me laugh! (YouTube sample here).
When I watch the Super Bowl, I stay for the commercials because they’re more likely to be witty/creative. I still love that Mean Joe Greene Coca Cola commercial from 1979, it’s one of the all-time great ones.
Many print magazines were sold to persons who appreciated the advertisements. I scanned the ads in The New Yorker for over half a century. Some TV channels are just ads all day every day.
I think the persons who put ads between segments of other TV programming are just not doing something right. Most of us should get something from most of the ads.
Since people do watch infomercials, and they do watch the various home shopping networks, it appears to me that the question is clearly answered. Yes. People already can do these things, and they are already doing them.