Comcast Trials BSOD For Politicians

from the worth-a-shot dept

With campaign season in full swing, there's no shortage of 30-second attack ads that offer very little substantive information about the candidates. Obviously, politicians must feel they work, or they wouldn't keep spending money on them, but as voters have other media options besides the TV and are prone to skip political ads, it's inevitable that the effect of traditional political advertising is wearing off. Comcast is now offering campaigns the opportunity to buy long-form advertisements over its VOD service, ranging in length from 2 to 30 minutes. Of course, these spots won't be viewed by as many people, but a voter who actively seeks out a political commercial is probably the type of voter that candidates want to reach. And remember the popularity of Ross Perot's hour-long infomercials in which he explained the national debt? People will pay attention to political ads that are heavy on information. If politicians just put regular ads on the VOD service, there is little to no chance that anyone will want to watch them, but if they put up content that's informative and interesting -- as other advertisers are learning to do -- people may actually pay attention.
Hide this

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


  • identicon
    Sanguine Dream, 3 Oct 2006 @ 12:43pm

    I have to admit...

    if I came across political ads that actually cover the issues instead of the usual, "Candidate A is teh sux." nonsense. I would really watch an ad that may be longwinded but the candidate presents and explains an issue and gives recommendations on a solution. Silly me I didn't start paying any mind to politics until the 2004 election (I've only been able to vote since 2000) but now I'm ready for the forums, discuassions, and debates. But until the mud slinging stops I have no time for the 30sec. ads.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 3 Oct 2006 @ 12:44pm

    Why would politicians want a BLue Screen of Death?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Yet Another Anonymous Coward, 3 Oct 2006 @ 12:52pm

      Re:

      thats wat i want to know

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Shel10, 3 Oct 2006 @ 5:28pm

      Re; Why Blue Screen of Death

      Perhaps if the politicians stare at the BSoD long enough they'll come to understand the "good" they do for their constituants!!!!

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    xxl3w, 3 Oct 2006 @ 12:52pm

    What are you talking about?

    Comment 2. What on earth are you talking about? I'd enjoy watching it if, like you said, they're not constantly bashing each other's campaigns or saying things like "Politician A raised taxes to pay of his gambling and weedage bill. Do you really know Politician A. Politician B will raise taxes to pay of your gambling and weedage bill. Vote for Politician B." If it was iformative I think it'd be a great idea + a money maker for comcast so maybe they'd upgrade their internet services.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward #3, 3 Oct 2006 @ 1:08pm

    The anonymous cowards who posted comments 2 & 3 are referring to the standard meaning of BSOD, blue screen of death. It took me a minute to realize the author meant B*llsh*t On Demand...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      br1an, 3 Oct 2006 @ 1:15pm

      Re: BSOD

      Actually with comcast on demand bsod means both.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 4 Oct 2006 @ 5:11am

        Re: Re: BSOD

        RE: Anonymous Coward #3:

        Thank you, and goodnight!!
        Comcast sux!!
        Politicians suck!!

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    exitstageleft, 3 Oct 2006 @ 1:17pm

    hehe...yeah, me too. All I thought was Blue Screen Of Death. Weird, politicians and ms error screens...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Beefcake, 3 Oct 2006 @ 1:18pm

    While I agree with the raw information of this post, I disagree with the conclusion. Today, the purpose of political ads has changed. They are no longer trying to get someone to vote for Candidate A, they are trying to get Candidate A's supporters to vote. The people who would seek out and play the VOD ads are already pretty diehard and likely to vote.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Matt Bennett, 3 Oct 2006 @ 1:37pm

    Here's a project for the class: Just as TV ushered this sort of thing in, how can modern technology be used to reduce the amount sound bites, buzz words and slogans used by politicians, and increase their incentive to actually try to impart information to the voters? The "world as they see it" at the very least?

    There's a candidate here in Mass, and all he uses is platitudes and Corp speak, he says nothing of a conrete nature at all. It's driving me nuts.

    How do we increase th incidence of things like Perots informercials?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 3 Oct 2006 @ 1:38pm

    what?

    All I could think of (after reading the headline) was somehow the ISP was offering denial of attack services to the political candidates...?

    Wan't to take down Candidate("A")'s Website? Just order a DOS attack today, and we guarentee at least one BSOD/hour!

    and then of course, the actual posting never said what BSOD was supposed to infer... so none of it made sense.

    (now that I know its supposed to be about "on demand" I can say that I would actually "tune in" to go watch them. When you make knowledge convenient, you get my attention)

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Shawn Lane, 3 Oct 2006 @ 1:57pm

    I am so tired of the bashing commercials. It is time that politicians told how they really feel on the issues and not what the opponent has done wrong.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Yet another Anonymous Coward, 3 Oct 2006 @ 2:10pm

      Re:

      But, how could get they get elected by revealing their true feelings? That would be a political consultant's nightmare.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Beefcake, 3 Oct 2006 @ 2:28pm

      Re:

      I don't care how they feel about issues, they're supposed to care about how I feel about them. You want my vote? Say "My interestes and opinions are my own, tell me yours and that's what I'll do."

      The way we do it today of picking someone who tells us they're just like us is like telling a pizza place that Driver A can't deliver your extra pepperoni pie because he doesn't like pepperoni.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Tom, 3 Oct 2006 @ 2:27pm

    I must admit that I watched perot's programs on national debt. the man was intelligent just not enough charisma to get past his ears for regular John Q. Public to pay attention.

    oh and the BSOD jokes are great I thought it was Blue screen too and just had to stop and read. what a great way to get us MS nerds to open our eyes

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 3 Oct 2006 @ 3:10pm

    We had a political campaign here around the issue of whether to recycle water. Unfortunately for the pro-recycling parties they opted to choose scare tactics rather than list facts about why the scheme was better and cheaper than the alternatives that the opposition was touting.

    Basically it backfired on them.

    They originally had support to go ahead with the scheme with a majority support in the council. After the referendum they had lost major support from everywhere, so now we face drought conditions and dam levels of under 20%.

    Facts would have made the difference IMHO. The vote went to a 40/60 split. I think some REAL information would have actually educated some of the stiffs in this place into voting for their future, not for the misinformation.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 4 Oct 2006 @ 12:17am

    That's why they think that

    I think that the people who read techdirt and the like actually think, while most others just listen to the 30 second ads. Just take into account the results of the last election (any last election).

    I can't believe that people believe the bull shit on the tv ads without even reading the material published on the voting brochure...

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.