Last week, I was contacted by Stephen Armstrong, a journalist for The Daily Telegraph who wanted to speak with me about the quality of today’s TV commercials as Netflix, Amazon, and Disney all move to include ads on their streaming platforms.
Apparently, it’s no longer enough to pay a monthly subscription fee to watch a premium streaming service. Now, we have to suffer through all of the dumb ads they want to show us, too.
As one source for this article who preferred to remain anonymous (“I’m going to have to do business with those assholes”) complained, “It feels like we’re paying twice.”
Indeed.
So what is behind this big change? The answer, of course, is money. Commercials generate more revenue per user than subscription fees alone.
Armstrong offers Netflix as an example. The company has offered a lower-cost, ad-supported plan for some time, yet this option attracts only a small fraction (15 million) of the platform’s 247 million subscribers — despite costing less than half the price of the ad-free Standard plan and less than one-third the price of Premium.
“Why aren’t people leaping at the cheaper option?” Armstrong asks. “Maybe it’s because ads these days are terrible.”
Bingo. Meanwhile, Netflix continues to raise prices on its Standard and Premium plans to push more people into choosing the ad-supported tier that boosts its bottom line.
Armstrong’s article goes on to highlight examples of good and bad ads, and explores possible reasons for the decline in ad quality.
Below: The Marc Jacobs “Daisy Daisly Daisy” ad (UK) featuring three dancing waifs that Armstrong says remind him of a CIA mind-control experiment.
Regular Cranky readers already know why I think today’s TV commercials are terrible: the people who work in advertising have forgotten the important job of selling that they are hired by clients to do.
Far too many advertising “professionals” are focused instead on “being creative,” winning awards, and getting famous among their peers. Some have convinced themselves that they are creating works of art.
The result is that “big ideas” and USPs (unique selling points) have been replaced by dumb jokes, visual gags, and loud music and noises.
The client pays for it all, but gets very little in return.
Laurence Green, director of effectiveness at the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising and one of the founders of the ad agency Fallon, blames “the rapidly changing media environment” — in other words, the proliferation of data-driven digital and “360-degree” marketing in recent years.
(Incidentally, I explore and ultimately disagree with the idea that digital marketing is a root cause of bad advertising in my blog post, “Why is modern advertising so terrible? A comparison of ads, past and present.” If you are curious, this article explores the Twitter discussion that caused Mr. Armstrong to look me up in the first place, and it just so happens to end with my own comprehensive list of reasons for bad ads.)
Of course, another big problem is the woke ideology that is infecting the ad industry, in large part due to ESG funding — but perhaps that is a topic that will get its own deep dive in a future Telegraph column.
Head on over to The Daily Telegraph now and give Stephen a click for his article, “‘Wokeism is destroying the industry’: why modern TV ads are so bad.” It’s a subscription website, but I think your first article is free.
Until next time, Cranky readers!
Related reading: “The real reasons people hate TV commercials in 2023.”
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I agree with you. Particularly re ads that push diversity whilst pandering to blacks and disparaging whites. Why? Is it supposed to be some kind of payback or karma? It’s strange how fast attitudes changed from folks bettering themselves being called Oreos (or worse), by their own people to magically giving everyone a trophy for just existing. Ah well.
The other ads that I think deserve criticism are those for prescription drugs. Annoying and phony sunshine and rainbows mixed in with serious side effects–and how the hell does one know if they’re allergic to a med they’ve never had before? I think they need a reality check, just sayin’.
I will never do business with State Farm. They fired and replaced their main ad spokesperson because he was white. That’s racist.
The story goes that the original Jake from State Farm wasn’t an actor. He was an actual State Farm employee who answered a casting call. But the company claimed it had to replace him when Original Jake quit and went to work for another company.
The fact remains: White Jake was replaced with Black Jake. Though a trendy decision in line with casting moves across the ad world, the change was jarring to consumers and added fuel to the fire for those concerned about “white replacement” in commercials.
I understand why the company needed a new Jake (assuming the story is true), but then, State Farm should have given the new character a new name to avoid the appearance of race swapping.
Well done.
Also, 2 words that make me sad: liberty mutual.
Thanks. I see that “Daisy, Daisy, Daisy” ad gave you Liberty Mutual flashbacks, too. 😛
Question I found on Quora… Why do viewers hit the MUTE during TV commercial breaks? ANSWER: Just listen to any of the annoying, irritating, overplayed, and obnoxious Liberty Mutual TV commercials when they sing their godawful, stupid-ass, dumb fuck Jingle, and then you’ll understand why viewers hit the MUTE button… SO TRUE!
Everyone, meet Gary. He’s suffered the worst case of PTSD I’ve ever seen as a result of watching Liberty Mutual TV commercials.
He’s angry … but I can’t say he’s wrong.
My question is, when are they going to finally drop that grand piano on “Larry” or whatever that irritating fuck imbecile’s name is? I for one am waiting!!
Which ad is that, Lar– I mean, Robert?
Might be worth a Cranky review.
The Limu Emu dimwit, the latest commercial THAT insurance company has released. The character’s name may not be Larry, but he is reading over the newest “script” which tells him to step to center stage where he will be crushed by a baby grand. When??!!?? When??!!??
OK, I just found it and I am never watching it again. Ladies and gentlemen, we are nearing Peak Clown World!
Tired of ads portraying white people as stupid and black people having to save the day. I will not buy anything that has that type of racist commercials.
While the push for forced diversity did come up in our conversation, it unfortunately did not make it into this article. Maybe next time. Understand, it’s a hot-button issue that mainstream news orgs may not want to touch.
Yeah, why am I not surprised that he didn’t touch that topic in his article? He just can’t quite bring himself to face the music since he’s part of the song they’re playing but doesn’t even realize it.
Hi, Kinchan. I think he acknowledged it (the forced diversity) in our conversation, but I believe he wanted to keep the article focused on the reasons why so many bad ads are being made rather than enumerate all of the ways in which they are bad. I do find it interesting that he put “Wokeism is destroying the industry” in the headline without really expanding on that. Possibly a purposeful decision to draw more eyeballs, who knows.
In any case, I agree. It would be nice to see more mainstream publications call out the crazy over- and under-representation we all see in ads every day.