It's surely a truism, but in my view the big problem with commercial broadcasting is... the commercials. Or, more accurately, the crass, ill-conceived and inappropriate ones.
Typical is the supermarket chain that will break the mood of a peaceful programme of classical music on ClassicFM to thunder in with pop or some other equally inappropriate genre.
Among the worst in my own personal experience, however, are the ads that appear at the start and end of each break on drama series such as The West Wing on More4. They're for one of the less-successful directory enquiry companies and feature guys with distinctly inelegant hair doing inane and meaningless - thankfully short - things. I imagine that the ads are supposed to come across as cool and slightly surrealistic, but to my mind, if you're wondering why this company isn't doing very well, now you know.
These particular efforts are obnoxious in and of themselves: ill-conceived, forgettable, with no perceivable relevance to the product or service they are allegedly promoting. However, they become particularly obnoxious when they create a jarring discontinuity with the specific programme content that is, after all, what you're there for.
The pinnacle came last Friday during the latest edition of The West Wing. For those who don't follow this beautifully-written series on life in the White House (under the kind of President many of us wish the US really had instead of the current loonie), now running up to its final episode in the UK, the writers had to deal with the real-world death of veteran actor John Spencer who played a central character, vice-presidential candidate Leo McGarry, in the series.
They did it by having Spencer's character pass away on election night, and last week's episode featured his memorial service and its aftermath: almost as much a memorial to the actor as to his character. Nothing could have been more jarring and inappropriate than to go to the break after a particularly poignant scene only to see these two inane guys in their numbered shirts rolling about in meaningless laughter. A better way to spoil the atmosphere of a quality TV drama I really can't imagine.
Needless to say, 'unnatural' spots like this don't help to sell: US research suggests that they actively reduce sales and put customers off the product, sometimes for a long time - if they can remember it and if they haven't hit the mute button for the duration of the break, negating the sales effort of all the commercials including, no doubt, several decent ones. I can tell you, for example, that I don't go to that supermarket, and I make a point of never, ever using that Directory Enquiries service: I use BT's instead (118 500).
It doesn't have to be like this, of course. There is no reason why the supermarket chain can't use classical music for its ads on a classical music station: only laziness at the agency prevents it. In the case of the hirsute twits, pulling the entire campaign is the only real answer - and the sooner the better in my view - but the agency could at least have specified that one of the somewhat less inappropriate spots could have come directly after a tearful scene.
It's simple, guys: ads that clash with the programmes will fail; ads that complement the programmes will sell. That's what the medium's for, stupid!
