Do you have to watch TV ads to make them?
A couple of comments on last week’s post probed the revelation that I don’t watch ads on TV.
Butterbean said: ‘Serious question: Do you think you need to watch TV ads anymore to work in advertising?’
Then Mr. Gash said: I think you should Ben. And ask Prod Co people how they feel when confronted with a team who’ve written a tv script….. but admit to not watching any tv.
I can’t be sure – but I’m guessing that Fords (as an example) are designed by people who drive.
Do Apple check their that their staff actually use the device they’re designing?
Fair points.
I then remembered that I actually watch quite a few TV ads, just not at home. When I’m in the gym I often watch TV (news channels and Seinfeld repeats, usually) and end up ploughing through the many commercials that accompany the programmes. Here are a few recent examples:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSpdcbhjXJU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVUBTfr7eo0
Not that bad, really. But I also get a few of these (check the legals):
So I’m not sure how they slipped my mind, but as I usually end up in the gym during the morning or lunchtime I never see primetime ads, and very rarely see Apple ads in their natural habitat. Is that a problem? I don’t think so. The above are a pretty representative sample of the spots I see, and I think they give me a pretty good context for the commercial TV scene in general.
But what if I never watched commercial TV? Would my work suffer? If I go with Mr. Gash’s analogies then perhaps I should, but here are a few points that might stir the pot a little:
- I never listened to commercial radio after about 1992. That didn’t stop me writing a couple of hundred radio ads, including some that made their way into the D&AD annual. Could I just recall how radio ads worked, allowing me to produce similar things years later? Or, beyond that, did my lack of immersion in commercial radio actually help me to make more original spots? I never found myself trying to replicate what was currently out there, and that might have helped me.
- Are Fords designed by people who drive? Are Apple products designed by people who use them? Almost certainly, but then a large percentage of people drive and use an iPhone, so that’s a tricky question. Do you need to eat at McDonald’s to make one of their milkshakes? Do you need to wear dresses to design them? Should all barbers have amazing haircuts? I’ve often read of top chefs who rarely eat the kind of things they make because after cooking that stuff all day they prefer to eat something simple.
- Do we have to be deeply immersed in digital advertising to create it? That’s a little harder because it tends to come to you, and if you prove to be out of the advertisers’ reach you might not see the work (I’ve mentioned before that I was an Apple fan and dedicated runner, but the first time I saw Nike Plus was in award books). I see a lot of annoying banners but very few of the ARGs and experiential stunts that tend to pick up prizes in these categories. Can I come up with a digital ad despite a lack of opportunities to experience them as a punter? I’d have thought so, so why would the same principle not apply to TV ads?
- Much of my work involves producing advertising that works in different countries, but am I sufficiently familiar with the ad breaks in Jakarta, Seoul or Mumbai? Not really, but then I’d need the whole context of why Indian ads are more colourful/emotional/effusive etc., otherwise I wouldn’t really understand why the ads are the way they are. I’d also need the history of the country to make sure I get all the references, and that’s probably impossible. Instead I rely on the eyes and ears of our international staff, who are well versed in such things, but I still know what a good ad is, and I understand the brand I work for, so I can contribute.
- I think most of the good ads we see come to us via industry websites and award shows. Is that like the Ford workers constantly test driving Ferraris, even though they’ll never have the need or budget to make one? Or perhaps they’ll learn something from checking the gearbox that they can apply to their own engineering. Then again, many creative luminaries say that the last place you should look for inspiration is award books, which are already out of date and feature work that has already been done. You could watch TV ads all day, but if it leaves you trying to replicate the latest John Lewis style, has it helped or hindered?
At the end of the day I think TV ads are much the same as they were 20-30 years ago. They may have differed in style, but they broadly follow a similar format, so I’d have thought that a great 1990 creative emerging from a coma in 2016 could probably come up with something good, but perhaps shot by Daniel Wolfe instead of Tarsem. So do you need to stay up-to-date with the current state of the art? Or will that do more harm than good when it comes to originality?
What about you? Do you watch much/any commercial TV, and do you think it improves your ability to do your job?
TV ads are a format familiar to everyone. We watch and consume video, whether it’s an ad or not, every day.
Digital is a little different, the format is always shifting and new rules are put in place. What once could be powered by Facebook likes now can’t be (legally). A minisite used to be the best way to do things, then everything had to live on Facebook. So you probably need to be a bit more familiar to understand the mechanics of digital.
The only time I watch tv is on Sky +, and I forward the bits in between the programs.
I watch ads for work, and rarely on any other occasion.
Interesting one.
Kind of agree with you. I’m certainly pretty much the same. Sitting through an entire live ad break on my sofa feels almost novel now.
I’d also add that watching films, TV series, theatre and the like is just as important to the process of writing telly ads as watching telly ads themselves.
Thing is, I have noticed that creative people who are truly passionate about something do tend to consume as much of it as they can. Hip hop, photography, short films. This does lead to a danger of losing a certain “outsider perspective” but the passion bit that drives them in the first place tends to outweigh this (and show in the work).
Specifically within the context of TV ads, I can well believe that vastly reducing your intake after a lifetime of watching ad breaks will still leave enough in the old emotional memory bank to keep knocking out good stuff.
It’s the ‘lifetime of watching ad breaks’ bit that worries me. Because, if the next generation have neither the desire or opportunity to immerse themselves in telly ads I’m pretty sure they won’t be the ones leading its creative renaissance.
Which sort of begs a second, slightly more important question: if ad creatives aren’t even watching TV ads anymore, then why the fuck should we expect anyone else to?
Cheers
i do make a concerted effort (and it is an effort!) to watch ads in the context they were intended if only to remind myself of that environment. i’m not sure it helps my output but it can’t hurt. I think Hulu does a decent job of integrating advertising into its offering.
Clearly the ‘everybody sitting down to watch Seinfeld and the commercials that ran in it’ days are long gone. But advertising will always need an audience boost to be effective. that hasn’t changed.
If you don’t watch other ads, how can you know not replicating them? Perhaps this is why advertising isn’t original anymore. We’re all working in isolation.
I think you could also make a case that watching ads leads to replication – of the style, the structure, the current trends etc.
Imagine what a person from the jungles of Borneo would give you.
OK. That’s an extreme example, but look at the rush to replicate the John Lewis style over the last few years.
Ben,
While you were out:
1. You may have been mis-sold financial protection products
2. You need to sort out your funeral arrangements now, apparently
3. Michael Sheen needs cash for Syria
4. So does Bill Nighy
5. So does Bernard Hill
6. Prince’s Greatest Hits is out now
Oh, and Michael Parkinson has a free pen for you.
Thanks for that!
Another point I’d add is: if you were going to make a movie or write a book you’d be better placed by immersing yourself in the classics than today’s output. You’d be learning from the greats instead of what passes for quality these days.
Would the same apply for ads? Would it be better to avoid today’s work and watch nothing but Cannes and D&AD winners?
Or just TV programmes and movies?
Or nothing?
no need to watch ads.
because we’re not really coming up with “ads” are we? we’re coming up with ideas. what’s the human truth? what’s the insight? and how can we execute in an original way? surely, no originality has ever come from copying a tv ad.
and then comes, how can we tell our story? tv is figured out. digital is ever-evolving, but i’ll depend on others to help me figure that shit out.
Interesting comments.
And yes – looking at Surfer is more inspirational than WeBuyAnyCar.
The missing element from the equation is the disdain that often goes with the comment. ‘We don’t watch TV….does anyone?’ as if the entire pitiful endeavour is doomed from the outset.
*wrings hands and clicks on AdContrarian for solace*
Thing is Gash,
I’d rather do nothing but write TV ads. It’s the channel I find by far the most rewarding, fun and worthwhile.
And I love reading the ‘Contrarian too. I desperately want to believe the picture he paints of the world. And, to be fair, he always seems to have the statistics to back his arguments up.
But that all leaves me stranded on an island of cognitive dissonance. Because, truth told, I watch a fraction of the number of TV ads I watched even 5 years ago. And so does everyone else I know. Including my 58 year old mother.
BB
And there’s the rub. The avergae age of the buyer of a new Honda HRV is only 5 years younger than your mum.
How do you reach them in 2016?
They’re about to part with £35k.
I don’t think you’ll persuade them by building some online puzzle or whatever.
Wouldn’t it be handy to have a glass ball to see where this is all going to go in 10 or 15 year’s time…
*CRV
HRV. CRV. OkeyKokey2000.
Evs. You know what I mean.
There’s a definite disconnect between ads churned out today and the wider demographic i.e the common man. I suspect Guardianistas and hipsters are responsible.