DVR Owners Definitely Skipping Political Ads
from the doesn't-that-suggest-something? dept
While there's an ongoing debate about just how effective TV commercials are for DVR users (do they watch the ads? if not, do they still remember them anyway?), it appears that just about everyone is willing to admit that people will skip campaign ads for politicians. This has political strategy types working up alternate plans, such as focusing most ad buys on shows least likely to be time-shifted, such as sporting events and American Idol. However, shouldn't it actually suggest that TV ads aren't particularly effective, and seem more likely to annoy people? Rather than worrying about better ways for viewers not to avoid ads, why not work on ways to better engage with voters, so they don't feel annoyed at all? In fact, it appears that is what a few campaigns are doing, making use of YouTube to try to draw interest in their political campaigns, by pulling them in with interesting videos -- rather than trying to force them on people.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Re DVR Owners Definitely Skipping Political Ads
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
All politics, all the time
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Duh
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Duh
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
there now follows....
which makes sense.
this was the first program of the series, and not very well trailed, so it would depend a lot on the previous program for its launch audience (it wasn't the first series though, so he was safe).
he then explained, for the benefit of the audience (in the studio) that the preceding program was "a party political broadcast by the liberal democrats"... and proceeded to greet both viewers who had sat through it by name.
it got the desired laugh.
I also remember a presentation by a guy from an electricity company about how they like to know when such political adsa will run cuss there will be a spike as people put the kettle on and hide until it finishes.
does anyone willingly watch this rubbish?
thankfully in the UK we only get a very limited number of these ads, all warned in advance. some are actually funny, since the normal rules of advertising don't apply (for some reason they don't want standards of accuracy to apply.. wonder why) they can get a bit 'far out' in terms of the fibs they tell.
I'd hate the US position of sponsored adverts...
over hear channel hopping didn't used to help since the ads would be on all channels at the same time to get round it.. dvr or just a video worked well.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
They already have a channel
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Perhaps if...
A vote comes up in the Senate for a bill that will generate about $40 million/yr for breat cancer research. However this money is actually coming from a tax hike to the middle and lower class. Senator A votes against it. When reelection time comes around 3 years later his/her opponent makes a TV saying that "Senator A voted against a bill that would support breast cancer reasearch." Now Senator A didn't vote against breast cancer research, he/she voted against a tax hike that would generate money for breast cancer research but this ad would snow over so many people that Senator A stands a good chance of not being reelected.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
normally i would say people are see what it is anyways even if its for about 5 secs before deleting it.
or pay for a Pay to view with a 30 sec unskipable ad in the middle or before the credits :D
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Watch a political Ad! That's a good joke. Even if it's on the TV, I'm not 'watching' it. They annoy me to no end. If I hear a candidates name enough to drive me batty, I won't vote for them anyway, because they've annoyed me too much, lol.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Ads? What Ads?
I don't have a DVR. I don't reall pay attention to the ads. And even if I happen to actually remember an ad I've seen, I almost never remember what the damned thing was for. Must be a form of mental time-shifting). I guess their dollars are wasted on me.
In my opinion all advertisement is lies. Whether or not a product is actually worth something cannot be determined by the content of the ad promoting it. Plus, most ads are just hell to actually watch.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Ads on this site ?
(I use adblock), so maybe the article should read:
"However, shouldn't it actually suggest that web ads aren't particularly effective, and seem more likely to annoy people? Rather than worrying about better ways for viewers not to avoid ads, why not work on ways to better engage with your readers, so they don't feel annoyed at all?"
:)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Ads on this site ?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Lovin DVR
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
DVR owners SKIP ALL commercials, not just political ads.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
My DVR is a homebuilt PC solution (GBpvr). It automatically skips all ads. No pesky fast forwarding for me......
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]