Christien Louviere

Today, I was driving listening to some sports talk show, which is my typical during my day. I can only take the same songs on FM so many times.  Anyway, at the commercial break I switched to my iPod instead of switching stations.  Recently, I’ve considered adding some Sirius or XM to my in-car mix.  I can’t figure out for the life of me why people are still throwing major dollars into radio ads.  I ask people from all walks of life what they do when a radio ad comes on the air.  I do this because it’s fun to hear people voice the same opinion as me and I’m confident most will do so.  From ages 18-77, "I change the station."  From ages 18-58, "I change to my (fill in iPod, their favorite satellite station or cell phone call)." Note to rabid Seinfeld fans only, I bet he never saw the "drive during the radio commercial cell phone call" coming.  I wonder how low he’d consider that one.  Anyway, I know the radio people have all their stats and yada yada yada, but does it really matter if the audience isn’t around to hear it?  Personally, the only time I ever hear radio commercials is on two occasions.  1) I listen to the news at the top of the hour on one particular station, so I’m forced to do so.  2)  Periodically, I tune in on purpose to hear commercials.  I’m in the ad biz, so I need to stay abreast of the current advertising being done in the city.

I give the people who create these ads a lot of credit because the format does not allow much room for creativity.  Most are pretty annoying and/or corny.  I think cell phone radio ads are the worst.  What industry do you think produces the worst?

Lately, many industry experts are voicing their opinion that outdoor advertising is making its way back into the hearts of advertisers because it’s hard to fragment things people can’t control, which they can with their TVs and radio.  It’s pretty obvious that they need to be more strategic in their planning.  Don’t even get me started on yellow pages.  Why anyone would pay $15,000 a month to be in the middle of 80 pages of clutter is beyond me!!!  I’ll save that one for later though.