The Consumer Republic: A Universe Of One

We no longer need to speculate about the future demise of mass TV advertising. It is already dead. I never see TV commercials anymore. Well, perhaps I exaggerate. I put in my hours in front of the tube just like every other red-blooded American--nothing like the couch-potato standard of mega-hours a week, but more than enough time to be exposed to hundreds of commercial messages. It is more accurate to say that in the regular course of my personal tube time, I never see the ads that the ad business talks about. Last week, I caught up with the June reel of Adweek's "Best Spots" to find that I had not yet seen a single spot on the list. Even stranger, I rarely encounter ads for brands that define what used to be known as mass advertising. I haven't seen a Coke spot since the Olympics. As for its archrival, is it true that Pepsi has completely stopped advertising on television? Word is that McDonald's and Levi's, which changed agencies in the last year or so, have entirely new campaigns on the air. But they rarely show up in my living room. I only know what I read in Adweek. True, my viewing habits are a little peculiar, as anyone who checked out the "fav" (for favorite) button on my new programmable universal remote control would know. None of the broadcast networks made the list of channels I regularly watch. I never tune into TV news in any form. Most nights, you'll find me hiding behind the decimal point in the minuscule rating of a narrowly focused cable channel. In short, I'm not a typical viewer. But then, neither is anyone else. All TV watchers in the 50-channel-plus universe have fav buttons, if only in their heads. Studies show that no matter how many choices viewers are offered, they pick out about 10 channels to watch and ignore the rest. Their favs may not be mine, but like me, they live in a narrow media universe of their own choosing. My tastes in television are particular, but I'll wager that my experience of the medium is universal. We know how advertisers have responded to the fragmentation of the audience: targeted media buying. This explains why I don't see Coke or Levi's ads. It also explains the dreary raft of commercials that I do see: lots and lots of car ads, financial service and credit card spots, ads for computers and telecommunications and, last and least, plenty of those dreadful "ask your doctor" pharmaceutical pitches. Ten years ago, many more categories clamored for my attention. Along with everyone else, I could follow the rise and fall of Pepsi campaigns from my living-room chair. Today, our window on mass culture is walled in. We see the TV advertising deemed suitable to our demo- and psychographics. We no longer need to speculate about the future demise of mass TV advertising. It's already dead. Consider the Ally McBeal phenomenon. Contrary to what you read in the magazine cover stories and the op-ed pieces, Ally is not a symptom of the death of feminism. The show is only seen by an audience of 7.9 million viewers--hardly a large enough number to qualify as a window on the national psyche. All we can deduce from the show's "popularity" is that it resonates with people in the advertising and media business--as well as other professional twenty- and thirtysomethings with tribal ties to those in the ad and media business. This niche appeal certainly makes Ally McBeal a good buy for the right brand. But don't kid yourself. The nation is not pondering the meaning of Ally's miniskirt. To most of us, she's just part of the white noise, a channel we never turn to. A similar tribal atmosphere gives the ad award shows their claustrophobic air. These days, the gold is likely to go to that burgeoning category, the advertising of advertising vehicles. The list of wonderful ads in this young genre is long: ESPN's SportsCenter, the Weather Channel, hockey and baseball on Fox, the Sci-Fi Channel, ABC and the granddaddy of the genre, NBC's Must-See TV. Yet you have to wonder whether the ad world loves these campaigns because they are effective or because they themselves are the target audience. When ABC, sunk in the ratings toilet, brags that its promotional campaign is the most successful TV brand-awareness campaign ever, it's admitting an interesting irony: The ads' audience is not TV viewers, but the much narrower tribe who work in the awareness business. The ad industry likes to think it is dealing with the irreversible fragmentation of the media world. Better analytical tools are always being devised to make sure client dollars aren't wasted on irrelevant consumers. But the logic of fragmentation works within the industry, too. We all dwell in niches, but not all niches are created equal. In the world after mass television, the niche that appears to count most is the one its own makers occupy.

Brand Marketing

The Consumer Republic: A Universe Of One

Debra Goldman

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Debra Goldman