Advertising Fuels TV?
I’m watching 30 Rock on-line via NBC. And it just struck me as incredible that, if it weren’t for advertisers, who would pay for TV? This is incredible because I’m not wholly convinced that advertising actually works. Will a 30-second spot on TGIFridays convince me to go there? I suppose it does if I haven’t already vetted TGIFridays off my short-list of placed to ever eat. Maybe if I’ve never heard of it, then my interest would be piqued.
Hm. Maybe I answered my own question there. To get brand recognition, you have to bombard the mainstream. Even if that means that 99% of the people will get repeated exposures—and 90-odd percent get over-exposed. I suppose it just takes money—lots of money—to get that last 1%, and it’s worth it for the big advertisers to spend it for that last mile, that last speck of gold.
And thank God for that. Free TV for me!