Truth, in the end, is nothing more than an advertising commodity!

Jul 16
17:12

2007

Paul Ashby

Paul Ashby

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The television industry is capable of causing great harm to the advertising industry and, resulting from this, causing devaluation to the process of advertising itself!

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And once again it is T.V. that confirms the fact!

Channel 4 has admitted there is something very fishy about "The F word",Truth, in the end, is nothing more than an advertising commodity! Articles the food show starring Gordon Ramsey.

To cut a very long story short, Ramsey didn't catch all those fish that the programme claimed, and then showed that he did.

The revelations are galling for Channel 4. It was rebuked for attempting to cover up a racist incident. Another incident resulted in it being fined £150,000 for encouraging viewers to call a premium rate phone number after a contest winner had been chosen. The food show is the latest blow to the creditability of the television industry. And that is on top of the BBC's very embarrassing recent gaffe over the Queen!

OK, so why this article in the marketing section? Well please consider this, at the moment, rightly or wrongly, television is the main medium for the advertising industry. And you must admit that no advertisement is an island!

If the television industry is losing the trust and faith of its audience, some of that has to rub off and affect the effectiveness of all those expensive advertisements being aired!

Is it not time the advertising industry attempted to clean up the television industry? After all these stations would not exist at all if it weren't for the huge profits generated by advertising!

Maybe, just maybe, consumers are becoming weary of all the dishonesty and poor quality content emanating from the television industry and returning to the cinema for their better quality entertainment.

Cinemas are reporting record figures at the box office thanks to big increases in attendance by the over-45s.

The number of people aged 45 and over attending the cinema has doubled, despite the availability of DVDs and other forms of home entertainment.

Previously experts predicted that high street cinemas would be in financial tatters by 2010. The arrival of DVDs, giant television screens and Internet technology apparently signalled the end of the movies.

Yet again the experts were wrong! It would seem that the taste for thinking cinema appeals to a better-educated audience with a lot more disposable income – just right for the advertisers!

Now all we want is for the advertising industry to grasp a better understanding of the word "communication" and to start producing better quality advertisements written and produced for a better educated audience and then, perhaps, just perhaps, Clients would get some value for their money!

Better still, if they started developing genuine interactive advertisements, then those poor, long suffering clients could, substantially, reduce their heavy marketing investment and reap the benefits of totally accountable marketing communication…now that really would be something!

Given the lack of trust evidenced by the television industry, does research confirm this diminishing trust?

Research published recently by Beyond Philosophy, a UK company specialising in customer attitudes, claims 82 per cent of people never believe their experience of an organisation will match the image promoted by television advertising. Beyond Philosophy concludes that television advertising may actually be harming, rather than enhancing, companies' relationships with their customers.

Similarly, research by the Henley Centre has shown that while nine out of ten people will trust their spouse or partner and eight out of ten their children, fewer than a third (27%) trust retailers or manufacturers, while just 14% trust either the government or advertisers!