The opening line of a radio commercial is the “commercial for the commercial.” It’s your one chance to grab the attention of the targeted listener.
Rarely do you capture the listener’s attention with an opening line such as this:
The rest of the commercial said nothing to back up that “better than ever” claim.
But that’s not the problem.
The problem is that no one woke up this morning thinking, “Gee, my life would be better if only Proactiv were better than ever.”
Sorry, Proactiv. One only hopes your better-than-ever product is better than your radio advertising.
Comments on this entry are closed.
Exactly the same thing I thought first time I heard it.
I don’t like questions at the beginning of spots… a good opportunity for the listener to say “no”
Sorry Arlene, but I disagree. Questions are a great way to engage the listener. It’s not whether they say “yes” or “no” to the question. It’s whether they can relate to the question: Do you like paying taxes?
A lot of people graduating from broadcast schools say that’s what they’re taught – not to ask a question if the answer could be “no”. I wish they’d stop teaching that.
As you know, we can’t appeal to everyone in a spot anyway. If the product or service doesn’t relate to someone she’ll tune out. But the listener will be back once she hears something that relates to her.
I think Dan used this example in one of his newsletters: Listening to the radio is like walking through an airport where you hear all sorts of announcements. But you don’t pay any attention to them until you hear your name or your flight.
ALL commercial opening lines (question or not) give the listener the opportunity to say, “No.”
And MOST of them succeed in getting that response (because they’re written by the client, the client’s wife, the client’s friend, the station receptionist, an account rep with no copywriting training who’s also in a hurry to get to his next sales call, or someone else who’s equally unqualified).
As in: No, you didn’t get my attention…No, I’m not listening to the message…No, after this commercial is over, I will not remember anything about it.
@Arlene and Jim, I agree with Jim – questions can be great opening lines if they’re GOOD questions. I always hear people saying you shouldn’t give a listener an opportunity to say ‘no,’ but it’s usually radio program directors who say it, not advertising pros. I’ll ask a yes/no question because I want to target a particular demographic. To those who respond negatively, I don’t care; I don’t need to speak to them. To those who respond in the affirmative, then let me zero in on that listener!
@Dan. I hear these blah, blah opening lines all the time, and am always stunned that national ad agencies get paid huge sums of money to write crap!
I’m with you, Matt. My last post referred mainly to spots created by radio stations on the local level, but it’s also truly incredible how many terrible national ads are out there. I’m sure Dan will never run short of such examples to share with us.
@Neal: The sad thing is when I record radio stations, I’m not looking for bad examples; I’m hoping to find good commercials to share.
But far more often than not, all I find are some really bad examples.
@Dan: So when you come across a good commercial, do you sometimes get as excited as a persistent gold miner who finds a rare nugget in a pile of rocks? Must be embarrassing if someone sees you cavorting about the room waving your hat in the air. 🙂
We’re running a spot right now that says, “prices so low we can’t advertise them” … Really? Has anyone EVER bought that line?
@Don: Sometimes retailers are prohibited by manufacturers from advertising certain deeply discounted offers.
But you’re right: Usually when a radio advertiser says that, they’re just blowing smoke.