I found this interesting coffee holder while buying a cup of coffee this past weekend in New York City. It is the face of Jay Leno from NBC and the advertisement of his new comedy show at 10:00pm. I quickly reacted to the coffee holder, for I had never seen an advertisement on one before.
I thought the ad on the coffee holder oversold the show. I had already seen one too many faces of Jay around the city. Furthermore, I think the ad is a desperate move by NBC, who according to TIME Magazine, sees the show as the last resource to “increase the company’s profit margin” in their primetime lineup. On the other hand, this is evidence that advertisements are consuming and invading our lives—even the little time we have to enjoy the morning coffee.
Overselling a show is not a good commercial strategy. There are different types of consumers. There are the fans that follow the show or personality everywhere and anywhere. Then there are those who will simply never attend, watch, or listen to what is being promoted. Then there is the most important group—the indecisive—those who do not have an opinion, but can be persuaded one way or the other. It is this group that is constantly targeted by ads. In a sense, they are classier consumers, for they are hard to convince and usually take their time to pick and choose. However, one must be careful not to cross the line between an advertisement campaign that invites, and one that begs.
NBC has oversold the new Jay Leno show, raising the expectations too high for a concept that has too much of the old, and just a few of the new. Begging is not such a good idea. Viewers want to be invited to watch. After all, if the concept is good, people would watch even if the coffee holder says the contrary.
Remember Slum Dog Millionaire? The movie almost did not make it to a theater near you. The budget of the movie was extremely limited to pay the actors. Needless to say, there was no money to advertise the academy award winner film. Yet, the movie won multiple awards, bringing back millions in revenue. When a product is good, advertisements are not as necessary, for the viewers themselves promote the product based on their personal experience with it.
We are living in a world run by advertisements; a world where we are constantly targeted to buy, listen, or watch. Ad Campaigns that introduce new products and invite us to use them are beneficial in a way. After all, someone should tell us about that new product we might need. However, to be begged to use a product is simply pathetic. To invade consumers' personal space with advertisements is intolerable.
I hope The Tonight Show at 10pm does well; even though NBC has desperately tried to suggest that The Jay Leno Show is no Tonight Show.
Sorry NBC. I refuse to drink my coffee with the old funny Jay staring at me. Stop begging me to watch--simply invite me--and we'll see what happens.
Just thinking...
2 comments:
I agree. Over-selling a show is suicide. People expect too much or simply just get tired of it. I kind of feel like the Jay Leno Show is overshadowing the Tonight Show a bit in advertisement. All I hear about is Jay, I never hear about Conan anymore...
Oh, and some of the best tv shows of all time (as hailed by critics and me, haha) are Arrested Development and Freaks & Geeks. Two shows that recieved BARELY any advertisement and yet were so creative and fresh and brilliant. I have a feeling if those shows had been over-sold, they would have sold out.
Great post!
hahahahah. i LOVE the last line of this post and i agree! It's so funny how you can turn something as simple as a coffee cup holder into a story. u r awesome!!!! Anyway, I agree that advertisments are taking over our world and people don't even realize it. Most Advertisments force us to spend more money that we don't have. I am proud to be an "indecisive" person when it comes to advertisments in our world. Just the other day my friend and I went to subway and they had the new "buffalo chicken" sub signs up everywhere before we even entered the restaurant and when we went in the cashier tried to get us to buy the sandwhich, and she started to get really defensive with her upselling. okay, first of all i HATE spicy things and second of all i had my mind set on a meatball sub, so why would i order the BUFFALO sandwhich? lol well, anyhoo. Personally, i've never seen the jay leno show and an advertisment on a coffee cup would not persuade me to do so!
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