A decade ago, I had this vision of a television channel – MTV for commercials. Above is the logo I drew up for it. Commercials would be presented in a structured way – by theme, brand history, actor, etc. In other words, the ads themselves would be the program.
Fast-forward to today, and I think we’re nearly there. Sure, there’s no Ad-J navigating us through the ads, but the volume of commercial advertisements on over-the-air TV, radio, even cable stations is there. The regularly scheduled program is arguably the theme tying the commercials together for 30 or 60 minute intervals.
Next step is to drop the program all together. All ads – continuously 24/7.
In fact, that’s where I see over-the-air broadcasts going in 5 years after today’s broadcasters deem their FCC licenses worthless and migrate distribution 100% online.
Flipping through the channels, you’ll see no big brands, all small, local businesses; used car dealers, family-owned restaurants, nail salons, etc. Just like those weird direct-mail coupon books.
LATER: 30 January 2007
It’s telling that the most stable, high-def segments picked up by our over-the-air HD TV antenna are the commercials.
ELSEWHERE:
16 April 2007