CNN Advertisers: Selling me nothing, Buying …. what?
The price of watching television (besides the lost time) is often measured in the commercial ‘load’, or number of commercials associated with a given block of time. Typical is 8 minutes of commercials per half-hour of TV. It makes the circle of life complete: I get free programming, Advertisers pay networks for the chance to sell me something. But what is happening when advertisers are selling me - nothing?
This excellent look into Advertising as Payola raises some terrific questions about the purpose of the branding advetising from the petro-chemical and military-industrial giants like Exxon, DOW, Lokheed Martin, and the rest.
Every ad break features ads for companies that make no products I can buy. … The next time you see an ad telling you how great it is that GE makes weaponry for the Department of Defense, mark it down. The next time you see a defense contractor advertise products you can’t buy - mark it down. Because these are the companies that REALLY own CNN.
Like, what is the point? What are these advertisers hoping for in return for the tens-of-millions of dollars paid to GE (NBC), CNN, and the rest? Because one thing’s for certain: whatever they’re selling, I ain’t buying.
xtina Says:
perhaps this phenomena can best be explained by the marketing term, branding. even though you may not be buying something today, your mind is registering this information. in the future you may purchase a large durable good such as some type of appliance & you’ll see the good ole GE logo on, say, a stove versus some other no-name brand. you may feel more inclined to purchase the more expensive GE stove because you ‘trust’ the brand. or in the capacity of worker bee you’ll be crowned with the responsibility of buying some technology to fix a problem the company has. again that ‘trust’ may kick in & you’ll say ‘hmmmm lockheed’ then ‘buy’ & either your dollars or the company’s dollars they’ll have. it’s all part a carefully crafted plan. mwahhhahahahhahahahahahahhahahhah!!!!!!
Posted on October 22nd, 2005 at 1:53 pm
xtina Says:
talk about missing the point. oopppss!
Posted on October 23rd, 2005 at 1:53 pm
xtina Says:
as seen in the december 10th-16th economist: “You use 25 barrels of oil a year. So are you ready to do something about it?
Because of surging economies in the developing world…global energy use is soaring. As a result, supplies are tight. (Thus our greatest profits in eons!)…energy users are calling for viable alternatives. The good news is we’ve got a huge source of alternative energy all around us. It’s called conservation and you might want to look into it if you want to avoid getting gouged too much…” blah blah blah, sponsored by Chevron. see more at willyoujoinus.com
Conservation is an alternative NRG source? Who woulda thunk?
Posted on December 13th, 2005 at 9:03 am
spider rick Says:
The phrase may be silly but the idea is true: for all the want of new/clean/renewable energy sources - nothing can match the impact of people in the US and other energy-hoggish places simply reducing our consumption. Imagine that.
Posted on December 13th, 2005 at 1:38 pm