Text 6: advertising through commercials

The main feature of American radio and television "culture" is advertising. Radio and television are two important modern media, influencing public opinion. The right to them is licensed out, to private companies, the major of which are the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), and the National Broadcasting Company (NBC).

Advertising agencies and TV networks together commission and choose programs suitable for advertising. The money for the programs is provided by the manufacturers of cars, soap, cigarettes, spaghetti, cosmetics, etc. For example, automobile companies commission special shows for the time of year when their new models are first put on sale. Commercials appear at 5-10 minute intervals. Every performance, except the sacred baseball match commentaries, is interrupted by commercials. Even the News is shown in parts. It makes you believe that the man or woman who is successful, attractive to the opposite sex, has a happy marriage, raises children well, etc., does so thanks and only thanks to the advertised products.

Advertising largely depends on viewing times. It is important for a sponsor and his advertising agency to know as exactly as possible who is likely to watch TV at what time. An automobile-manufacturer would not want to buy a program for children, no matter how good the show and how large its audience. He will have his program broadcast at a time when most men will be watching.

Radio as well as television in the United States is free and production costs are also covered by money from advertising. Roughly 20 per cent of the broadcasting time is given over to commercials. In the most popular programs one-minute commercial costs about 500 thousand dollars. And you can't escape from the radio here. Radios are switched on early in the morning and go on all day as a permanent background noise. So you listen in wherever you go - in houses, cars, restaurants, taxis, railway stations.

Advertising is a fine art in the USA. Advertisements are often short plays with actors and minimoviemakers command top talent: famous actors and actresses, Hollywood producers. One American said about it: "The best brains in our country go into salesmanship. Any fool can make a thing. What takes real brains is to sell it when the customer has got one already and doesn't want another."

In a TV commercial the advertiser is trying to persuade you to go out and buy something. He wants to make you feel that you really must have it. He can use a number of different effects to do this:

*The snob effect. This tells you that the product is most exclusive and of course rather expensive.

*The scientific effect. A serious-looking man with glasses and a white coat, possibly a doctor or a professor, tells you about the advantages of the product.

*The words-and-music effect. The name of the product is repeated over and over again, put into a rhyme and sung several times, in the hope that you won't forget it. The sung rhyme is called a "jingle".

*The ha-ha effect. The advertiser tries to make you laugh by showing people or cartoon figures in funny situations.

*The VIP (Very Important Person) effect. Well-known people, like actors or football-players, are shown using the product.

*The super modern effect. The advertiser tries to persuade you that his product is a new, sensational breakthrough.

*The go-go effect. This is suitable for the teenage market. It shows young people having a party, singing, laughing, having a wonderful time, and, of course, using the product.

By skillfully using advertising baits, representatives of big business are quite able to exert a substantial influence on the content of TV and radio programs.

From the USA and the Americans

TEXT 7: PERSONALIZED ADVERTISING

The personalization will deeply affect all forms of advertising. As digital TV becomes more popular and electronic books become the preferred way to read magazines and newspapers, almost all advertising will move away from mass advertising to personalized advertising. The commercials that appear on screen will differ according to who is looking at them; different neighborhoods or even different homes in the same area could see different commercials. Big companies can become more efficient with their advertising, and small companies can consider TV and magazine advertisements for the first time. Today many types of advertisement are too expensive for any except true mass-market products. Soon even the neighborhood grocer might be able to afford commercials for people living near the store.

Targeted advertisements should make customers happy. They’re more likely to see advertisements that are relevant to them. Some people may be worried that advertisers have too much information about them, but software will make it possible for people to reveal only the information they want to reveal. For example, most people wouldn’t mind if advertisers were given viewing patterns. Most regular readers of specialized magazines-whether the topic is sports, food, science, gardening, or cars-look at the advertisements as carefully as the articles. If you watch TV in the same way, mainly for one or two interests, you probably wouldn’t object to seeing commercials that concentrate on those interests.

From “Business at the Speed of Thought” by Bill Gates