Monday 20 April 2009

Time to watch the advertising

If you think you've got it bad with advertising, try watching the IPL in Australia.

Same ad breaks, same times, but completely different content during the ads. You see, even the tactical time-out is purely ads, and 30 second ones at that. Then it's back to the studio to get Ryan Campbell's expert advice on cricket before we head to the game.

Sounds alright to an extent, but that's before you consider that with the ad breaks thrown in at every possible opportunity, including between overs, after wickets, etc, we are being subjected to quite a lot of advertising when we sit at home watching the IPL. (this is for everyone across the world, of course)

It's made worse by the fact that Australia's IPL broadcaster - ONE - is still a very new channel. It's barely been a month since this channel was launched, and in that time, the only sponsors or advertisers they've managed to secure are Castrol, Hungry Jacks, Advanced Hair Studios and Gatorade. If there's one or two more, tell me in the comments, but this is pretty much it.

Now, in the time that we're expected to watch ads, imagine these 4 ads being repeated, time after time. Imagine watching only these 4 ads for the duration of two matches, every day. Throw in a few ads from the channel itself and we've got a very narrow range of advertising that is expected to cover about 2 hours in total per night. It makes you actually want to watch Anthony Hudson and Ryan Campbell, or Corey Wingard.

I have most of the ads committed to memory, they haunt me in my dreams.
"At Hungry Jacks, we believe you should be able to get a meal for the same price, no matter where you live."
"I have to ask, is this true or is it just a load of spin?"
"I'd be looking like a new ball."
"You mean 'yeah, yeah'."
"Can you afford not to use it?"
"I guess this stuff works."

If you can identify the person who has said those quotes, congratulations, you must be Australian.


You mean 'yeah, yeah.'

As a side note, did anyone catch Corey Wingard repeatedly asking Campbell whether Warnie could make the Ashes team? He must have come up with a different scenarios in which the selectors have to decide whether Warnie can be on the squad, and each time Campbell responds with a no. By the end of that drawn out conversation, I was ready to kill myself.

10 comments:

Esra_Star said...

Thank fuck this is shitting other people too. I swear a small part of my brain dies everytime the cricket goes to an ad break.

Oh and did you notice Ryan Campbell's addiction to looking at the wrong camera, or himself on a monitor off of the camera? Wanka.

For the record I'd have Corey Wingard over Huddo anyday!

Anonymous said...

Oh I'm glad I'm not the only one noticing it. The Sportsbet ad shits me too. Two men sitting in front of a camera explaining how to bet could drive any one crazy.

Also that Harvey Norman one and continous ads promoting netball...

Anonymous said...

Oh I'm glad I'm not the only one noticing it. The Sportsbet ad shits me too. Two men sitting in front of a camera explaining how to bet could drive any one crazy.

Also that Harvey Norman one and continous ads promoting netball...

Amy said...

Esra, Wingard is a welcome change, actually. He actually knows what he's saying, even though he's not normally a cricket commentator.

Anon, I seem to have completely blanked the Havey Norman ad out of my memory. What is it?

Srishti said...

Singapore has only ONE ad, for the global indian school. It involves indian children saying they want to be explorers... I don't think anyone can quite match my agony here.

Rayden said...

You guys before complaining, you need to watch the coverage in India. First of all we have an unbelievable amount of sports channels here now but the IPL is being telecast on Sony Entertainment which shows mainly Hindi soaps and bollywood movies. On top of that, all anchors and hosts are actually television actors giving their expert comments on world cricket.

One of the hosts is a Chinese guy who did well in last years Indian Idol music competition. Yeah he is also one of the "experts" covering the IPL.

Now you guys mentioned you had only 4 or 5 ads and Srishti mentioned there is only 1 ad in Singapore. Well in India we have thousands of ads because of which the channel keeps cutting to advertisements even while the ball is in play. A no ball or wide - we see an ad, the batsman just plays the 6th ball of the over and immediately we see an ad. Commentary gets cut off all the time since they have to cut to an ad and squeeze in all those thousand advertisers. And to make things worse we have a "strategy break" - which is a strategy for the IPL and the local channels to earn more money via ads.

The above is just 2% of the irritating things in the coverage of the IPL.

Maithreyi said...

Ha ha, the ad breaks in India are more interesting. I love watching 'em ads.

... For the first 200 times, anyway.

The 'strategy breaks' are annoying. Although it totally allows me time to regale the hapless person I'm watching the match with a feverish monologue about the state of the match and what could happen (and how awesome Dhoni looks in those shades).

The so-called 'match analysis show' bugs the hell out of me. Mandira Bedi on screen and I'm scampering out of the room. It's a Pavlovian thing.

Oh, and Rayden? I'm pretty sure that Indian Idol guy is Assamese. Anyone's better than Lekha Washington, though. *shudder*

Amy said...

One ad? That is truly disturbing.

And I think it's fair to say that everyone seems to have the short end of the stick. Actually, yesterday they had a greater range of ads to keep us entertained. In one day, they managed to secure more sponsors. Excellent.

Anonymous said...

Amy - The Harvey Norman ad is the one with the host of Sports Tonight (can't remember his name) but he goes into Harvey Norman and gets some guy who works there to help him learn how to use a Nintendo DS...Riveting...

Amy said...

I remember now. And the subtle little reference to "I watch it too".

Then there's the gas/electric oven. Don't get me started on that one.