Chopped: Tv Ad That Tells Viewers How To Skip Tv Ads
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday November 11, 2006
WHEN television networks ban an advertisement promoting a recorder that can skip ads, you know advertising is in trouble.
The ad that you will see tomorrow night for a plasma TV with a built-in digital recorder will be very different from the one electronics firm LG had in mind.The original ad featured a line that would have had universal appeal to TV viewers: "When you replay, you can skip the ads." But after the commercial and pay TV networks refused to run it, LG recut it to include the considerably less catchy line: "And when you replay, you can skip straight back to the action."Last night LG's marketing manager, Darren Goble, said that the feature was by no means unique - other recorders have it - but that it made sense to make a virtue out of it in its marketing. "We identified it as a key consumer benefit so it would have been good to have been able to communicate it," Mr Goble said. "The preferred option would have been to run the original but we have to work with the networks. TV is an important medium is for us." He would not speculate on the reason for the network's decision, but was relieved that his $1 million ad campaign was not completely lost. Most recorders can fast-forward recorded television, thus allowing viewers even the briefest glimpse of ads, but few can obliterate an entire 30-second spot - the mainstay of advertisers and the foundation of the commercial networks' revenue.
© 2006 Sydney Morning Herald