Instead of blowing you away with news of how your life as a television viewer will be radically changed, ReplayTV just kids around
MAKE NO MISTAKE about it. Just when we’re still catching our breath from the hurricane of change wrought by the Internet, another storm of equal intensity is just over the horizon. And commercial television is directly in the eye of the storm. It may not be swept away entirely. But it may be seriously diminished. Ironically, that may be good news for all the other traditional media as advertisers scramble to rechannel their television dollars.
Do I indulge in feverish hyperbole? I don’t think so. Here’s why.
The digital video recorder has arrived and is now being offered by two makers, TiVo and ReplayTV. It is as different from your VCR as today’s automobile is from the horseless carriage.
Among its many magic features is the fact that you can be your own television program scheduler. You can make up your own anthology for the day or evening from a vast menu of choices.
But even if you choose to watch “live” TV, you won’t really be watching live TV. You’ll actually be watching a digital recording of the “live” TV program you have chosen. So when you come to a dull spot – or a bunch of commercials you don’t want to watch – you just touch a button and skip right on past.
Think about it!
Today you can buy a VCR for under 100 bucks. And 60% of U.S. households own one.
ReplayTV currently costs about $500. But if past history of electronic merchandise price competition is any guide, within three years a ReplayTV or other digital video recorder will probably sell for what a VCR costs today. And again, up to 60% of U.S. households will own one.
Are those folks going to sit there watching 48 commercials an hour when they can fast-forward past them? I don’t think so.
Will the big prime-time network shows be able to avoid even more audience shrinkage when people can watch anything they want at any time? I don’t think so.
That will leave television advertisers of 2003 spending most of their dollars on the smallest and least affluent part of the market. Good luck.
Sophomoric Slump The reason I mention all this is that I am absolutely baffled by the sophomoric ad for ReplayTV that I have chosen for this issue’s makeover. How could they have possibly run such anobscure, lackadaisical ad for such an exciting and revolutionary product?
“If I had my own channel” sounds like the ad is talking about a futurist fantasy or purely hypothetical possibility, not something that is actually available today.
This is followed by a feeble joke about women’s hair which some strong, independent women might feel is insulting.
The ad is illustrated by the face of a woman who seems not only strong and independent but a little unpleasant. She’s almost a sourpuss. Isn’t that a hint of a snarl on her lips?
The text of the fashionable teeny-tiny white letters on black background does touch lightly on some of the attractions of the product. But there is so much more exciting news about it that needs to be told. What were they thinking? Even in my makeover, I felt that my copy wasn’t long enough to do the product full justice.
As I have ranted about many times before, part of the explanation for such ridiculous advertising is the fad for ludicrous creative excesses in so much unmeasured advertising today.
But I couldn’t help wonder if there wasn’t something else involved. Suppose the agency copywriter had wandered into the creative director’s office, excitedly waving a rough layout headlined something like, “Goody! Now your viewers don’t have to watch our agency’s television commercials anymore!” Maybe, just maybe, he would be gently steered in a different direction with words like, “I have a better idea. How about a joke about women’s hair?” What do you think?
In my makeover, I chose the American Revolution as a visual metaphor for the electrifying news of this product advance. And I highlighted what I thought were the two salient features: You are free to watch anything you want to watch, and you are not forced to watch anything you don’t want to watch.
And oh, yes, I did not set my body copy in tiny white letters on a black background, with quadruple leading.
Network
