TV Advertising

TV Advertising

Everything people eat, wear, or use is pushed at the public through

commercial advertising. Whether it is the fertilizer that the farmer

chooses to put on the vegetables he grows, the clothing that is chosen at

the department store, or the pen to write a report, it has been advertised.

Advertising occurs even in the packaging of a product. From the colors the

manufacturer chooses to use on the wrapping, to the multi-million dollar

expense of television, everyone is influenced by advertising. One of the

most powerful forms of advertising is in the advent of television. Since

its inception, advertisers have viewed television as their most powerful

tool. Television provides an excellent avenue for companies to sell and

promote their products. There are fewer and fewer people living today who

were around when television was not. Today's generation was raised

entirely on television! Since the 1940's, television has been an important

part of American life. Television is able to sell products like no other

medium can. This incredible power of television comes from three specific

areas: an inordinate amount of time spent in front of the television,

it's ability to target a specific audience, and it's ability to attack the

viewer on both the auditory and visual field.

The time spent in front of a television continues to grow with each

generation. The number of hours a child spends in front of a television

is rapidly overtaking even the number of hours that they will spend in

school. Included in their weekly television viewing are an extraordinary

amount of commercial messages. Before entering school, young children will

have formed many of their beliefs of what is good by the commercials they

have viewed. Due to the number of hours spent watching television,

advertisers use the concept of repetition to "promote goods, services,

ideas, images, issues, people, and indeed anything that the advertiser

wants to publicize or foster" (Pride & Ferrell 1). Even in politics,

advertising sells its candidate. In the past presidential election it was

impossible to watch TV on any given evening without seeing Bill Clinton or

his ideas numerous times. Brand names for many well known products have

been adopted as the name used for all brands of the same product. People

request a Kleenex rather than asking for a tissue o...

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...watch it.

A great example of this is during the Super Bowl. Many people rush to the

television in order to watch the commercials because they are entertaining.

The ability of an advertiser to tell an interesting story or create a

humorous one greatly increases the appeal of the advertisement. The

invention of the television is one of the most powerful tools for

advertising a product to the masses. With so many televisions in the

United States advertisers can reach millions of people in one thirty second

spot of air time. The evolution of television and the technological

advances of computers have given advertisers the tools to create

commercials never before possible. As the amount of time people watch

television grows advertisers are given more and more time to expose their

products. Compared to the television ads of the past, advertisers are

having to work much harder in order to impress perspective buyers to

purchase their products. But, because of the ability of television to

saturate a product because of the time spent in front of the set, to target

a specific audience and to hit the viewer on both "ends" (auditory and

visual), their hard work will pay off.