Before starting the research on how many commercial breaks
are in one episode of a TV show, I wanted to "survey" three of my
friends and ask them one question. I asked, "Do you think the purpose of
advertisements on TV shows is to attract advertisers or entertain us?" All
three responses were, "Money and attraction." I disagreed.
Every Thursday I watch the season premiere of The Vampire Diaries, on CWTV. I noticed that
the commercial break usually occur during the rising action and climax of the
plot. I strongly believed that the purpose of commercial breaks is to make
viewers feel anxious about what is going to happen next. The "breaks"
make viewers wait. But since we are given a prompt about whether or not the
purpose of advertisements on TV shows is to attract advertisers or to entertain, I
decided to set a time limit of 10 minutes. If the commercial breaks take more
than 10 minutes total, I will most certainly agree with the fact that the
intention of advertisements is to maintain advertisers.
The results shocked me. The 42
minute and 34 second TV show contained over 6 commercial breaks, and 28 advertisements
consisting of Texting and Driving, motor vehicles KIA, phone company AT&T,
Wendy's, Lowe's, Venus shaving brand, Marshalls, Kohl's, Target, Old Navy,
eHarmony, One Smart Blend (dog food), and even 7News. Many of the ads were
repetitive. I totaled up the times of 6 commercial breaks which resulted in
11 minutes and 55 seconds. The results were approximately 2 minutes over my time
limit of 10 minutes. For that reason, I decided to change my mind. I now agree that
the intent of ads on TV shows is to achieve support from advertisement
companies. Without the financial support from advertisement companies, there
will not be TV shows to broadcast. And without the support of TV networks,
advertisement companies will not be able to attract viewers to buy their
products. These two factors correlate with each other.
At one point while re-watching
one episode from The Vampire Diaries,
I realized that the commercial breaks are time consuming. There was even a
commercial break of 3 minutes and 40 seconds. That is ridiculously too long. I could probably be studying for a chemistry test during the 11 minute and 55 second advertisements. Also, there was an ad on 7News. I wondered to myself, "Why would a news station need to advertise? It's the news." That is when it "clicked" to me that the TV networks are not trying to benefit us, but solely to benefit their sponsors.
Lisa, in response to your last paragraph, try the same experiment next time you watch a nightly news program. Trust me, the nightly news might be the worst of all. In a half-hour segment of the news, I am sure you will probably only get about 18 minutes of actual news. The news is the worst, and was actually the impetus for this week's prompt. I am tired of watching nightly news programs that are nothing more than series of ads and stories about weather and people's pets.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure I completely understand your idea about commercials acting in coordination with television shows to generate suspense, make us wait. But there is something interesting about this idea. Surely writers know that their television shows will be interrupted by commercials. However, I am not sure that they know where they will be inserted. Maybe they do; I don't know. This would be interesting to find out. If this is the case, then the ads actually serve as part of the entertainment process. This would be even scarier.
The quantitative research you do is great. With this assignment, I was hoping that students would be startled, or "shocked," to realize just how many minutes of their programming is committed to advertising. As you write, in many cases the number of ads can be "ridiculous." I think what you write at the end of your penultimate paragraph is the most precise. Although I don't know that the word "correlate" is the best word to use, I agree that it is probably incorrect to conclude that one - entertainment or advertising - is superior to the other. It is probably most appropriate and precise to conclude that there is a mutually beneficial relationship between the two. They support each other.
For the most part, this post is well-written. There are a couple awkward sentences. This is one: "...the intent of ads on TV shows is to achieve support from advertisement companies." I think you meant to write that the intent of the entertainment is to attract ads.