"The View From the Phlipside" is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY. It can be heard Tuesday through Friday just after 8 AM and 5 PM. The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program. Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moments notice. WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed. You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com. Copyright 2012 by Jay Phillippi. All Rights Reserved. You like what you see? Drop me a line and we can talk.
Program scripts from week of May 21, 2012
My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, radio, the movies and more. I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View from the Phlipside.
Old And Unloved
Let’s summarize a couple different stories that I’ve seen recently. First young adult viewers, say 18-34, are not watching a lot of TV. When they do watch it they are probably not watching it on a traditional network broadcast. And oh yeah, they simply are not watching commercials. At all if they can avoid it.
At the other end of the advertising spectrum you have older viewers. In TV terms “older” begins at age 50. Now I have some very unpleasant news for all my fellow older viewers. Advertisers have no interest in us. I mean zero interest. Do you want to know the term for viewers over the age of 50 in the advertising world? Such viewers are referred as “dead”. Seriously, once you hit 50 you are officially dead. Now those of us who are dead? We actually watch TV, we usually watch when the networks put it on and we will even occasionally sit still long enough to watch the commercials. Probably easier for us since we’re, you know, dead. In case you think you detect a tiny little taste of bitterness in my voice I would not say you were wrong.
Now the basic business model for TV is that the advertisers buy commercials on the networks so people will see them. If your target audience doesn’t see the spot then you’re just flushing money down the media toilet. And TV commercials cost a LOT of money. So you’d think advertisers might like us older viewers a bit more than they do.
Once again I must be the bearer of bad news. Let me give you a concrete example. We’ve talked before about the bad times over at the Peacock network. NBC has occasionally finished as low fifth in the ratings. They have virtually no shows that could be described as successful even using the broadest definition. So picture the show “Harry’s Law”. The NBC show starring Kathy Bates was one of the most viewed shows on the network. It had millions of viewers. And NBC cancelled it. Why? Because those viewers were too old.The days when being 50 was “old” is an outdated concept. The 50 somethings I know are still active and oh by the way still spending lots of money. Instead the advertisers want to pursue the younger audience. You remember them, the ones who don’t watch the commercials. And on the whole that’s beginning to sound like a pretty good idea to this old dead guy too.
Facebook Controversy
I can’t believe I even have to waste time on this next subject. Sadly other people apparently believe it’s worth talking about so let’s just take a moment to show them just how wrong they are. I came across this story about a week ago and never expected to see it again. But with Facebook making its IPO of stock last week (which, parenthetically, has turned out to be a circus as predicted) it seems just about anything related to Facebook is news worthy.
In this case the news services are carrying a story that, I don’t even know that I can force the words through my lips but I’ll try, it seems that, well, not everyone likes Facebook.
Yeah, I know. That’s just about the most obvious point I’ve heard this month. Yet for some reason it’s deemed worthy of some fairly considerable coverage. Seriously, really? There is not a single category where you will find a unanimous decision. I mean not everyone likes me, hard as that is to imagine. So why is the fact that not everyone likes slash uses Facebook such a big deal?
The other part of the story that bugs me is the attitude that seems to come from the folks interviewed for the piece. Like the one who says they have no interest in talking with some one they knew for 6 months 13 years ago. Well, ‘kay. If you want a Facebook account with 3 friends you can do that. I’ll be the first to admit that Facebook can be an enormous time waster. I have absolutely no problem if you don’t want to be on Facebook. You’ll never hear me criticize me a decision not to sign on. But don’t get all high and mighty with me because I do. Through Facebook I’ve reconnected with friends, got to know one of my youngest cousins and one of my nieces used Facebook to get some help when she wasn’t sure she was in a safe place. You can focus on the positive or focus on the negative. When you do that you fail to see the whole picture.
What you end doing then is spending a lot of time talking about something that’s just not worth the time and the effort. Some people like Facebook. Some people don’t. There you go, six words. Which is just about what the whole thing is worth. Not even as much as a single share of stock.
Hopper Flopper
When I first started writing advertising copy back in the dark ages on actual typewriters one of the first things I was taught was this - if the consumer doesn’t remember who you are at the end of the commercial it doesn’t matter how clever you were, or how brilliantly you managed to put all the pieces together. If at the end of the spot they don’t have the name of the product, the service or the business drilled into their minds you’ve failed. All these years later I’ve found very little that makes me want to question that simple concept.
Here’s what brings it to mind. Dish Network is currently running a spot that my family loves. It’s for a new product called the Hopper. The spot in question revolves around a family from Boston who discuss the new product at pretty much the top of their lungs. They just keep repeating the name over and over. “The Hawpeh” “The Hawpeh” “The Hawpeh” All I have to do is say it once and my lady wife and daughter will immediately pitch in till one of us wrap it up just like the commercial by shouting “Shut Up!”. The writer planted that hook deep into our brains. Lovely stuff.
But here’s the problem. Just what is the Hopper? (sound of crickets) Um, yeah. I don’t have a clue. In fact till I ran across a story about it I didn’t even realize that I had missed the central point for the ad. For the record it is a new digital recorder that allows you to automatically skip all the commercials in pretty much anything you record. It “hops” over them. Clever, no?
And that got me thinking. Did the ad make the grade under the standard we discussed earlier or fall short? If all it had to do was put the name of the product in my brain then it worked. If it’s also important that I have any clue what it is then it failed. I guess I would have to give this spot a C plus. The hook is just so good that you can’t overlook it. And I did know it was something from a satellite provider and had something to do with the hardware. So the quality of the writing pulls it up but the pitch of the product pulls it down. The concept is so clever that it overwhelmed the pitch itself.
The Hawpeh. Sure it cracks me. But it’s supposed to make me care.
Call that the View From the Phlipside.
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