I despise most commercials to the point where I will go out of my way to avoid them. I’ll change the channel, mute my speakers or TV, or even not watch a video online if the commercial is too intrusive. The one commercial that has been bothering me lately is a commercial on Spotify. Spotify is a music streaming service like Pandora or Rhapsody. If you have the free version like I do, every 15 minutes of streamed music they play a minute worth of commercials. Which is fine, they need to make their money, and I have a health mix of my own music in Spotify so I really only hear commercials every 25-35mins.
What has been bothering me isn’t the type of commercials but what they say in the commercials, their message. I do suspect they make the commercials super annoying so you get so sick of them that you pay the monthly subscription to get rid of ads. However, these commercials have completely turn me off to any product/service they are advertising. Take for example the one they are playing now for the Ohio Lottery. The message I hear in the commercial is “because of holiday crowds, your road rage, and poor planning on your part, you should buy lottery tickets for your friends instead. They sell them at convenience stores where you don’t have to deal with people.” How awful is that? You gave me zero reason as to why I should buy lottery tickets except for the fact that you think I’ll turn into a psycho murderer if I try to park in a crowded parking lot. Instead a good commercial for the Ohio Lottery might be, “Hey, don’t have time for holiday shopping? Or don’t like the crowds? Why not give an Ohio Lottery ticket? You are giving your friends a chance to win big. How Big? Big enough to make their Christmas awesome.”
Grant it, that might not be the best commercial, but it does give a reason to buy. That’s the point. Who cares what your product or service is when all that is expected of me as a consumer is to buy your product. It shows you don’t respect the consumer, nor does it show that your business cares about your customers unless they are giving you money. Tell me WHY I need your product or service. Tell me why without making me, the consumer out to be some sort of idiot. Tell me what makes your product/service so great. I don’t think that is hard to do. It will help you stand out among every other business that is shouting “Buy from me!”
