More Research...

Just using this post to record some more research on advertising, forgot my notebook! (Also thought it could help other people if they're stuck for extra little bits of info on TV advertising)


- First television advert was broadcast in the United States on July 1st 1941 when the Bulova Watch Company paid $9 on New York City NBC for a 20second spot before a baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies. It simply displayed a Bulova watch over a map of the U.S with a voice-over of the company's slogan, "America runs on Bulova time!"

- Codes and conventions of television include: catchy jingles, catch-phrases, animation, element of surprise.

- Animation (drawn or computer generated) can give a certain appeal which would be difficult to achieve with actors etc. Notable advert: Kellog's Rice Krispies, combining the characters, Snap, Crackle & Pop with real actors. ANIMATION APPEALING TO CHILDREN.

- TV advertising takes airtime away from programs. Typical hour-long American show in 1960s would be 51mins of the show and 9mins advertising, split up through the show. Today, a similar program would be only 42mins of the show and 18mins of advertising. A typical 30min block of time on a TV station today would include 22mins of the show with 6mins of national advertising and 2mins of local advertising.

- TV adverts today appear between shows but also interrupt the show at intervals. This method of interrupting shows was used grab the attention of the viewers because they were already focused on the TV show and would not change channel during the adverts because they would not want to miss any of the show. However, with the development of remote controls, it has made it a lot easier for people to change channel during the advertisements, meaning advertisers are having to come up with ideas to keep the audience interested enough to sit through the advertisements.


I'll probably keep posting more of this stuff up throughout the day.