Pratibimb | Feb. 2011
Marketing Mania
COMMERCIAL BREAKS: THE DESPISED HYGIENE? Rohit Arora | TAPMI ―Advertising may predispose individuals to respond positively or negatively towards a product or brand. Such elements, as the execution of the advertisement, the mood created by the advertisement, the degree to which the viewer is aroused, and even the context within which the advertisement is received, (e.g., television program or magazine), may affect their feelings about the advertisement, and in turn their feelings about the product or brand (Stern and Zaichkowsky,
1991).‖1 Another important variable which might affect the viewers‘ feeling, especially for a TV advertisement, that can be included in the list of variables given by Stern and Zaichkowsky, could be the time length of the advertisements or of the commercial break itself. In spite of being the costliest media for advertising, TV has always been regarded as one of the most efficient and economic media to reach consumers, due to the shear fact that it provides more reach, in terms of eyeballs grabbed, to the advertisers.2 Though there is a lack of statistics in this field in the Indian context, many reports suggest that the increasing clutter of advertisements has started creating a repulsion effect on the viewers for the advertisements. While the early 70s saw a norm of having a 60 second advertisement in America, the same for the present day has come down to around 30 seconds,
with more than 10% of the commercials booking spots for less than 15 seconds. The same trend seems to be followed in India as well. With the overall break time being increased over the period, the number of advertisements being aired has increased by a large amount, creating a feeling of irritation among the viewers. With time, the consumers have been empowered more than ever, by technology, and it has become imperative to know if the viewers, so sought after, actually watch the large number of advertisements or if the evolving technology has enabled the viewers to skip the advertisement by quickly changing the channel (known as channel grazing) to watch a recorded version (zapping or zipping)3, of the show, courtesy, the invention of DVR, just to ensure that they are not disturbed by the long chain of advertisements which sometimes continue for longer durations than the show itself. The increasing number of downloaded daily soaps does indicate that the consumers are shifting towards other technologies to watch things which were limited to T.V. till a few years back. A report by Morgan Stanley published in 2009, based on the experience of an intern, states that, there is a lesser inclination for television among teenagers or the younger generation; this is supported by a number of factors, one of which is, the large number of advertisements on T.V. which they want to avoid.4 Though many researchers mention the extent of clutter in their research, most of the studies still have been restricted to a general attitude of the viewers towards the advertisements, various factors or stimuli which they judge the ads on and their effectiveness. Kallem and Naved (2002) mention that ―There is a strong possibility of irritation on the part of the viewers when their popular program is interrupted by the commercials. Because of this, if a negative attitude
8