The 21st Century Radio Advertising Innovation In Idiocy is the “commercial in which the announcer explains to us things we already understand, using inane examples that have no relation to reality.”
As a preface to the copywriting critique I’m about to offer, let’s acknowledge that the entire premise is B.S.
“Paying your phone bill, electric bill and cable bill online with your MasterCard prepaid card” will save you six hours per month? Really?
Apparently MasterCard believes each time a typical consumer receives one of those bills, the consumer walks for an hour to the nearest village to make a cash payment to the telephone company, electric company, or cable company and then turns around to shuffle home for the one-hour return trek.
I’d be surprised if the real-world savings is more than six minutes, not six hours.
But let’s pretend this ground-breaking innovation (paying your bills online with a credit card!) could save you a few hours each month.
Is your response, “But golly, what could I possibly do with a few extra hours each month?”
If I asked you, “Hey, could you use a few extra hours each month?” which would be your reply:
1) “Hmm. I dunno. I’m already having trouble keeping busy with my present schedule. I’m afraid I’d be bored.”
or
2) “Yes.”
Do you really need a goofy illustration of how you could use those extra hours (or, more accurately, minutes)?
And are there any people on this planet who believe the time they’d save paying 3 monthly bills online with a credit card would give them the precious gift of “getting to be a kid with your kids”?
How do we get your message to these idiotic ad agencies? I’m almost certain everyone reading your blog is in complete agreement that this spot does everything wrong. Yet, it will air unquestioned on hundreds of radio stations with little consequence.
Us guys working in the trenches of the production room totally get your message and cheer it openly. But we’re not the ones who need this message; it needs to be heard by the ad agencies who continually churn this tripe for radio. Radio is powerless to do anything about it, except watch the ongoing trend of listeners not caring about what they hear on the radio.
Radio stations could do something about it:
They could start giving a damn about producing profitable results for advertisers.
They could provide real training to their employees who write and produce radio commercials.
They could have at least one fulltime copywriter, well educated in radio advertising and well compensated.
They could create and enforce standards.
They could….Well, I’ve been saying all this for too many years now.
But the ad agencies that churn out that kind of crap are not going to get it, because they have no incentive. They don’t get paid for performance. They get a percentage of the buy.
And when the radio campaign doesn’t deliver a positive Return On Investment, the agencies:
1. Blame radio.
2. Tell the clients, “It’s not supposed to produce results. It’s a branding campaign!”
