Mark Cuban Says Bring Back The Fifties Live Commercial
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban says the future of television advertising is in its past. He says bring back the live commercial so the viewer (nor the advertiser) will know what to expect until it happens. Calling them Reality Commercials, Cuban claims implementing such a thing would not be a technical challeng or a creatyive one but it would entail a whole lot more work. He cites a couple of examples which does get the mind thinking. After all, a commercial riffing unexpectedly off what the viewer just watched would be far more interesting and integrated than a canned spot. And, oh, the potential for screw ups....that alone would keep a fair amount of people watching.
It's a radical idea but then Mark Cuban is a radical guy. While we're all lamenting the troubles of the :30, this guy puts forth a simple idea that anyone us us has/could have thought of but we're so stuck with our current model, we can't get out of our own way. I urge brands and networks to try this. There's nothing to lose. Everything's already on a downward slide so there's nothing to lose by trying something like this. And wouldn't it be a hell of a lot more fun and goose bump-inducing than creating an over produced piece of crap that does nothing but wastes the client's money?
Comments
I'd like to see live tv ads. Could live advertisments be more difficult to test and focus group and apply pseudo scientific theories to ?
Could live commercials change the kind of committee made content that celebrates mediocrity ? That would be nice.
It is a great idea, but would be more expensive, talent-wise (maybe production-wise?). I would love to see it, but I wonder - were those ads associated with a main sponsor for a particular show? I don't know much about it, but didn't one or two companies sponsor the entire show - much easier to include live commercials then.
Isn't this idea just very short Home Shopping Network pitches that are live?
The only problem I see with Mark Cuban's idea is that, well, I think people would dislike these as much as :30 second spots... maybe even more.
Think about your experience watching TV at home. Infomercials are the lowest of the low in terms of advertising... and I think that's what people would associate these "live" ads with.
The examples Mark gives are hideous... I'd rather watch any of the crap commercials on TV today than sit through one of those!
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