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RADIO COMMERCIAL DESTROYS CREDIBILITY WITH OPENING LINE

GCI Solar radio commercialHere’s the third in our Trilogy o’ Terrible Radio Advertising.

As with the commercials we critiqued on Monday and on Tuesday, this one aired on September 1:

The client is GCI Solar.

I’m not playing the rest of the ad, because it’s an endorsement spot read by one of the station’s jocks, and there’s no point in embarrassing him.

But in Los Angeles — especially this year, with its record-breaking heat — “Summer is here” is not news. It officially arrived more than two months ago.

It was 102 degrees in my neighborhood when that “good news” spot was played.

“Some really good news” would be, “Summer is OVER!”

But it’s neither here nor is it news.

If you begin your radio commercial with a declaration that makes you sound stupid and out of touch with your audience, there’s no hope of getting your sales message delivered to your target audience.

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  • Tom Johnson September 4, 2014, 10:26 am

    These are always 100% on the spot Dan. Love the helpful info. Sad how many stations still make these copy-writing errors!

  • Tom Johnson September 4, 2014, 11:22 am

    These are always 100% on the spot Dan. Love the helpful info. Sad how many stations still make these copy-writing errors!

  • Rick Fry September 4, 2014, 10:07 am

    As much as the Marketing minions would like you to think otherwise, writing for radio is not rocket science.
    Everyone under 60 has learned to tune out advertising so the first line should always be an ear catcher…a line or a sound effect that draws the listeners attention. Then the advertiser’s name. If the client gets nothing else out of the spot, they get their name out there and that is worth the price of the spot. Then put the crap in — whats on sale etc and follow that up with the call to action [where do they get the product or information and end with the company name and slogan.
    Its 100% effective and all the rest of this stuff all the ‘experts’ want to sell you is crap