Television commercial
A television commercial is a visual and auditory advertisement designed to promote a product, service, or message to consumers, typically lasting about thirty seconds in the U.S. Originally emerging after World War II, television advertising evolved from radio-style sponsorships to the more flexible spot advertising model, which allows for shorter commercial breaks during programs. Significant historical events, like the quiz show scandals of the late 1950s, prompted a shift in advertising strategies, leading to the dominance of spot advertising by the 1960s.
Television commercials must navigate various regulations, including restrictions on advertising to children and prohibitions on tobacco ads. The rise of cable television and more specialized networks has allowed advertisers to target specific demographics effectively. However, the advent of digital video recorders (DVRs) and streaming services has challenged traditional advertising methods, prompting advertisers to explore product placement as a way to reach audiences who skip commercials. There are notable differences between U.S. and foreign commercials, with U.S. ads often employing a direct approach, while foreign ads tend to focus on emotional appeal and broader audience engagement. Despite these challenges, celebrity endorsements remain a common tactic in both U.S. and international advertising strategies.
Television commercial
A television commercial is a type of commercial advertisement that uses audio and video elements to attempt to sell a product or service or convey a message to consumers. In the United States, most television commercials are short spots (about thirty seconds) that air within and between programs. In addition to standard television commercials, many advertisers also attempt to sell products or promote messages through other forms of advertising, including product placement on television programs and long-form commercials known as infomercials.
History of Television Advertising
Although television was first introduced in 1939, the medium did not become popular until after World War II. Advertisers quickly realized that television had the power to reach consumers in a way that radio never could. Advertisers could now provide an image of their product along with an attention-grabbing description. Nevertheless, early television advertisers did not stray far from the model used by radio commercial advertisers of the era. During the early twentieth century, companies often acted as the sponsors of radio programs. These companies paid for entertainment programs that often bore their names and promoted their products. Usually, the product or service was incorporated into the radio program's story line in some way.
Early television programs were similar. These programs, many of which were variety shows, had names such as The Colgate Comedy Hour or Kraft Television Theatre. However, television programming proved to be much more expensive than radio programing, so few companies had the resources to sponsor an entire show. This sponsorship style of advertising gave the sponsors nearly complete control over the programs they supported. Eventually, television executives and networks hoped to find a new way to bring in revenue that allowed them to regain creative control of their programming.
This led to the development of magazine-style, or spot, television advertising. In this form of advertising, sponsors paid to air short spots (about sixty seconds each) during commercial breaks in a program and in the time between programs. Selling commercial spots this way allowed television producers and networks to reclaim control of the content of their programs. It also opened television advertising to many companies that could not afford to sponsor an entire program.
It took some time for this form of advertising to catch on with advertisers. Program sponsorship continued to be popular into the late 1950s. During this era, a scandal involving popular quiz show programs eventually led to the decline of sponsorship advertising. Quiz shows were the most popular programs on television at this time, and the shows' sponsors wanted to do everything they could to keep people watching. Several sponsors even coerced networks into providing some contestants with the answers to questions to keep fan favorites on the air and keep their ratings high. When the truth about the quiz shows came out, viewers were angry. A contestant from the popular show Twenty-One, Charles Van Doren, even testified that he was fed answers before a Senate subcommittee. Soon, network executives, who had been pressured to rig the games by their sponsors, decided that it was time to take back control of their programing. Thus, spot advertising became the norm on network television during the 1960s. It has continued to be the dominant form of television advertising ever since. Over time, the length of commercial spots varied. Many companies could not afford to purchase sixty-second spots, but they could purchase forty-five-, thirty-, or fifteen-second spots. Today, most commercials are about thirty seconds long.
As spot advertising became more common, the government adopted certain forms of legislation to exercise control over television commercials. One of the first such pieces of legislation, signed by President Richard Nixon in 1970, banned tobacco ads on television and radio. Although tobacco companies were the biggest advertisers on television at the time, citizens and health officials, concerned about the negative effects of tobacco use, called for more regulation of commercials advertising cigarettes and other forms of tobacco. The government responded by prohibiting advertisements for cigarettes, cigars, and smokeless tobacco on television and radio.
About twenty years later, the government once again became involved in television advertising. The Children's Television Act of 1990 imposed limits on the number of commercials that could air during cartoons and other television programs specifically geared toward children age twelve and under. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) limits commercial advertising during children's programming to 10.5 minutes per hour on weekends and 12 minutes per hour on weekdays.
In the late twentieth century, the advent of cable television provided consumers with more channels to watch, many of which were geared toward a specific demographic, or segment of the population, usually broken down into categories based on age, sex, and race. This allowed advertisers to target a group of people by buying airtime on a specific network. Instead of purchasing airtime on one of the big national networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX), a small appliance company might choose to run an ad for a new blender on the Food Network because the company knows that its commercial will reach people who are interested in cooking.
Toward the end of the century, infomercials—commercials that mix programming with product endorsement and run for about half an hour—became a popular form of television advertising. Previously banned by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), infomercials were first permitted to air on television in the mid-1980s. Today, most infomercials air late at night or during the day on weekends. These program-length commercials often feature endorsements from celebrities, and they sell everything from appliances and tools to cosmetics and exercise equipment.
Sponsorship programming did not fade away completely in the modern television-advertising era. However, this type of advertising was generally reserved for television "events," such as the airing of a culturally significant movie or a major sporting event.
How Modern Television Advertising Works
Networks depend on commercial advertising to fund their programming. The cost of an advertisement might vary depending on when the advertisement will air and what network airs it. The popularity of a program also affects the cost of commercial airtime. Advertisers will generally have to pay more to get their spot aired during a program that has good ratings, such as Monday Night Football. The Nielsen Company collects television ratings, which are statistics that show the number and types of people who are watching certain programs.
Every year, television networks attempt to sell large chunks of their airtime during an event called the upfronts. At this weeklong event in the spring, networks reveal their schedules for the upcoming television season, which often include new series, and try to persuade advertisers to purchase airtime. Advertisers consider which shows will appeal to certain demographics, and then they think about when and where their ads should air to reach the right type of costumer. According to Advertising Age, it is estimated that advertisers determine how to spend $9 billion of the more than $60 billion that is spent on television advertising each year at the upfronts. Because advertisers are generally taking a risk by purchasing airtime upfront—especially during new shows that have yet to be tested with audiences—networks will sometimes strike a deal in which they will reimburse a company with more airtime if a particular program fails to perform well in the ratings.
Of course, not every company purchases advertising time during popular prime-time television series. A company that sells a specialized product rather than something that will appeal to a wide range of viewers (such as cars and cell phones) may only purchase time on a channel that caters to a certain demographic. In addition, regional companies only purchase ads on local television networks since they do not need to reach a national audience.
Advertising Challenges in the Twenty-First Century
In the early twenty-first century, new forms of technology have presented challenges to the traditional magazine-style format of television advertising. Many Americans have invested in digital video recorders, or DVRs, which allow them to record television programs and play them back at their convenience. These devices also allow viewers to fast-forward through commercials. Streaming services, such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, present another potential problem for television advertisers. These services, which allow customers to stream television shows and movies to various devices for a standard fee, do not air commercials. Many consumers, fed up by the high cost of cable and satellite television services, turned to lower-cost streaming services for their entertainment needs in the early 2010s.
These technologies presented advertisers with a challenge: how to sell their products to audiences who willfully ignore advertisements. Many companies turned to product placement, also called native advertising, to get their message to consumers. Often, product placement simply involves the use of a product on a television show. For instance, a character might drink a particular brand of soda or use a certain type of computer. This is the most subtle form of product placement, as it does not usually interfere with the creative process of the program. However, product placement can be much more blatant. This often involves the characters on the show talking about a product. One example of this type of product placement was seen in a 2010 episode of ABC's Modern Family, in which a character tries to find an Apple iPad for her husband's birthday gift. While product placement may help advertisers reach consumers who eschew traditional forms of advertising, some critics argue that viewers are jolted out of the fantasy created by the program when characters discuss certain brands or when product placement is overdone.
US vs. Foreign Commercials
While US and foreign commercials have many things in common, some key differences are found in foreign television ads. US commercials tend to go for a hard sell, meaning that the advertisement uses direct and aggressive techniques to get a customer to purchase a product or service. Foreign commercials tend to rely on soft sell techniques, which are more subtle and friendly in nature. While American commercials tend to focus on certain groups of individuals, foreign commercials are often designed to appeal to a broader range of people. In addition, foreign commercials usually have a slower pace and attempt to appeal to the viewers' emotions more than US commercials do.
However, celebrity endorsements are one of the things that US and foreign commercials have in common. Famous celebrities, from actors to sports stars, often receive much money to appear in television commercials because advertisers believe that this will encourage fans to purchase the featured product or service. This tactic is used in television commercials around the world, and many American celebrities have even appeared in foreign television commercials.
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