DVR Owners Definitely Skipping Political Ads

from the doesn't-that-suggest-something? dept

Tue, Aug 22nd 2006 11:28pm — Mike Masnick

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.

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18 Comments

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Donald Duck, 23 Aug 2006 @ 1:19am

Re DVR Owners Definitely Skipping Political Ads
They have to account for those who don't own DVR machines and what channels are more likely to have commerical viewers. Like local news or national news, getting a politicals ad during the news could catch millions of voters eyes. I wouldn't want to the government to say that it is illegal to block out their ad's. We'll call it the DO NOT POLITICAL AD me list. Still yet more then likely I would watch some programs with commericals. Like football or volley ball live.
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?, 23 Aug 2006 @ 2:07am

Maybe this would be a good time to invest in a DVR.
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PoliticalRefugee, 23 Aug 2006 @ 2:13am

All politics, all the time
There should be one channel devoted to political ads that gives each candidate or group equal ad time and for the same price. There would be nothing but ads 24 hours per day, constantly re-running. People could tune in at their leisure. You could call it "The Bullshit Channel".
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Gavin, 23 Aug 2006 @ 2:41am

Duh
Just look number of Americans who vote. If you can't be bothered to turn out on election day, you probably don't care enough to even watch the ads.
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claire rand, 23 Aug 2006 @ 4:20am

there now follows....
remeber a guy on the telly over hear.. stated that programs typically get about a third of thier audience from whatever was on before it, the rest depends on people remembering the program was on, and if they turn on before it starts not disliking the preceding program.

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.
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C-Span, 23 Aug 2006 @ 5:06am

They already have a channel
C-Span and very few people watch it. If I wanted to watch a bunch of guys talk crap and try to one-up each other I go hang out with some High Schoolers.
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Sanguine Dream, 23 Aug 2006 @ 5:58am

Perhaps if...
political ads had a more to them than mud slinging and borderline lying about the opposition then people would watch them. Here's what I mean by borderline lying.

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.
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hoeppner, 23 Aug 2006 @ 5:59am

our DVR compan can put stuff the box, the only thing they did so far was a few advertisements for their products, of which i watched for the heck of it. :shrug:.
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
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Neum, 23 Aug 2006 @ 6:18am

If I go this entire political season without seeing a single "Candidate A eats live babies, vote Candidate B, the baby's choice" ad, I will be in a much better place. I don't watch sports on TV and I most certainly don't watch American Idol. Nearly everything I watch is time-shifted and I won't ever go back.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Aug 2006 @ 6:22am

har har!!

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.
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Ron (profile), 23 Aug 2006 @ 6:32am

Ads? What Ads?
re: "do they watch the ads? if not, do they still remember them anyway?"
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.
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me, 23 Aug 2006 @ 6:48am

Ads on this site ?
I noticed that there are a number of attempted 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?"

:)
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Aug 2006 @ 6:52am

Lovin DVR
I can not live without my DVR. As a matter of fact I have 2. I love the fact that I can skip commercials. As Im blasting past one and I see something that looks interesting I will jump back to it and give it a shot to sell me. Otherwise click click and I am watching my show with limited interupions at my discretion. That includes political stuff. If you don't have a DVR go to a freinds house that does. Youll never go without again. Mine is from replaytv.com
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claire rand, 23 Aug 2006 @ 6:59am

Re: Ads on this site ?
this site has ads?
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Aug 2006 @ 7:00am

****NEWSFLASH****

DVR owners SKIP ALL commercials, not just political ads.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Aug 2006 @ 7:42am

Re: Duh
Really, if you are basing your vote on the political tv ads, then you really should not vote.
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dgeezer, 23 Aug 2006 @ 7:58am

Re:
Further news flash:

My DVR is a homebuilt PC solution (GBpvr). It automatically skips all ads. No pesky fast forwarding for me......
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big dog, 23 Aug 2006 @ 9:21am

lol... I read this article yesterday and instantly thought this would be a great article for Techdirt - and wala - it's here! :)
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