Advertising has formed from an informative segment to a source of entertainment itself, especially in recent days with the emergence of the internet and mobile devices.
Technology keeps changing and opening a broader span of viewership and ways of viewing entertainment. This changes the aspects of advertising and ways to appeal to the new network of viewers they have to conform to. Originally, when ads expanded from print sources, they were placed in between television showings. They were primarily informative (even if the information was not always that accurate…). There were few channels and no way to escape the commercial breaks as the invention of rewinding and fast-forwarding tape wasn’t even really made yet let alone anything like the DVR’s we have now that could alter television broadcasts.
Hundreds of channels have been added. The invention of DVR’s have completely changed the idea and analysis of intended demographics since people can now watch programs at other times than the live showing. Ads can be completely ignored altogether by fast-forwarding or switching channels. Further complication has recently come about with the change of TV show platforms quickly becoming digital. Shorter forms of digital entertainment like online videos and webshows have become popular due to the invention of the internet which adds to the problem of change of focus from television and paper sources. Advertisements have to alter their standards to appeal to these changing masses.
How can they grab the attention of people who can now so easily avoid advertisements? The most effective way has recently been creating campaigns and using the growing appeal of storytelling to their advantage and becoming a “show” themselves. Humor is the most popular form and websites like YouTube are used to popularize those ads as the very viral videos that are causing competition for attention. The story-based top-notch commercials that play during the television showing with the largest live viewership, the Super Bowl, are becoming known as a sort of campaign and event itself. Some people even only watch the showing for the commercials alone as if they were their own separate show. It makes ads more interactive and memorable.
I think it’s a great thing but I am also biased as a filmmaking storyteller myself. They still typically get the point across (much like how us filmmakers do) and can compete with this crazy rise of entertainment. It’s a way of advertisement survival in this now primarily-digital world.
