What's the point of TV ads?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

How do you know that they are "fallacies", Dave?

[Dave2002]

How do you know that they are "fallacies", Dave?

Maybe I'm using the wrong word, but I don't like it when journalists, newspapers etc. try to bolster their arguments by using big numbers, which when looked at from a different point of view are really not very significant. Maybe for the moment I should use a phrase such as "biased representation", which of course you are at liberty to disagree with!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I'm having difficulty understanding what this Thread is about, Dave. The title is "What's the Point of TV ads?" - the answer to that seems immediately comprehensible: it creates revenue for ITV - according to ITV itself (not "journalists, newspapers etc") around a third of their "income". From which direction would one have to look before such a figure be regarded as "really not very significant"? You also claimed in #6 that your "point is that there is now insufficient money to be made from adverts"; even if this were true (it may be, and I look forward to your evidence demonstrating this) in what way do you imagine cutting off this £890 million would create "sufficient money"?

If the Thread is simply "aren't TV adverts really annoying?" then I wholeheartedly agree.

[LMcD]

Maybe I'm using the wrong word, but I don't like it when journalists, newspapers etc. try to bolster their arguments by using big numbers, which when looked at from a different point of view are really not very significant. Maybe for the moment I should use a phrase such as "biased representation", which of course you are at liberty to disagree with!

One of the very few pieces of advice I gave our children was that, as their lives progressed, they would find themselves dealing with bigger and bigger numbers but those numbers wouldn't necessarily mean that much.
To think that, when my grandma sent me down to the shops to buy jam, I was instructed NOT to buy strawberry because it cost 2 shillings - plum or mixed fruit was OK.
As regards quality TV dramas on commercial channels, they may be relatively few in number but there would be even fewer if it were not for the revenue generated by advertisements.
Subscriptions are of course now a major source of revenue for production companies, but you do get to see the programme in question ad-free.
You can also pay a modest fee to watch the itv hub free from advertisements.
There are some advertisements which I love to see over and over again - in particular those for Specsavers: 'SUPPLIES - I SAID SUPPLIES'.
One final thought: if you REALLY dislike the adverts that much, why don't you record the programme in question. Like cloughie, I derive much pleasure from trying to stop fast-forwarding just as the last advertisement ends. Some form of channel identification, or a trailer for a forthcoming programme, is a great help!

[Zucchini]

I suppose that the "point" of TV adverts is that it brings in £890 million.

Double it (that's a 6 month figure). Annually it's nigh on £2 billion

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Double it (that's a 6 month figure). Annually it's nigh on £2 billion

- I only noticed that that was a half-year figure after I'd posted. Still about a third of the total "income"?

[Dave2002]

- I only noticed that that was a half-year figure after I'd posted. Still about a third of the total "income"?

Ah - so now we're almost as confused as the UK government and the EU!

Sorry fhg - if you object to the title of the thread you could change it - though perhaps I'd rather you didn't. Yes - I do find most adverts very annoying, but conversely hour long dramas on BBC don't provide the comfort breaks. Even worse with some of the longer programmes!

It's not only ITV which relies on adverts - E4, More 4, C5 etc. C5 has had programmes which were very good, but probably wouldn't get onto BBC - I'm thinking of one Michael Portillo programme in particular - excellent but utterly grim.

Maybe the companies really do know what they're about, or don't care enough to optimise their demographics, though I once was involved in a project where for a very short while I was checking out the effect of adverts on those comissioning the adverts - that's where the money comes from after all.
So if you buy (say) dishwasher tablets for 16p a tablet, maybe 1p of that has been spent on TV and other advertising. The questions for those companies
are:

where is best to put the adverts?
do they make any difference anyway?
what is the best time to place the adverts?
etc., etc.

It's not always clear. Some companies do pilots in different areas in an attempt to get answers.

I agree about the Specsavers ones - I like the collie dog one.

[LMcD]

Just to show how useful TV adverts can be ...
(1) I got tired of going to our local Co-op optician only to be told that I needed a new, expensive pair of glasses every time (subsequent experience confirmed my suspicions that this wasn't true). I'm a regular watcher of 'Countdown' which was sponsored by Specsavers at the time, so I remembered that we have a branch in our High Street. I wish I'd 'gone to SpecSavers' much earlier, as they're cheaper, they're very professional and very thorough and they don't tell you that you need a new pair of spectacles when you don't.
(2) I was finally persuaded by a TV advert by the Financial Conduct Authority to see whether I was entitled to PPI compensation, I applied direct to the card issue and after a remarkably straightforward procedure I received a very nice 4-figure sum (I had to pay 8% tax but no other charges were applied).

[Dave2002]

(2) I was finally persuaded by a TV advert by the Financial Conduct Authority to see whether I was entitled to PPI compensation, I applied direct to the card issuer and after a remarkably straightforward procedure I received a very nice 4-figure sum (I had to pay 8% tax but no other charges were applied).

I always thought the PPI things were bogus - for most of us, though some people would have been swindled by the finance companies. I tend to ignore those people who ring up about PPI - maybe we really have lost out. Good to hear that you came out of that well, though. The PPI thing seems to be on its last gasp now.

[Serial_Apologist]

I always thought the PPI things were bogus - for most of us, though some people would have been swindled by the finance companies. I tend to ignore those people who ring up about PPI - maybe we really have lost out. Good to hear that you came out of that well, though. The PPI thing seems to be on its last gasp now.

Well the particularly irritating Gladstone Brookes one tells us we've got to the end of August to claim back any money owing - and then, after the end of August, returns to tell us the very same thing! And this has been happening for years now!

[LMcD]

It's best to contact the card issuer direct. A friend of mine was told by one of these agencies that they would require 'their usual 40%' of what they obtained for her. The original card issuer won't charge you a fee. You don't even need to provide that much information - all I had was the number of a long-cancelled card and a rough idea of when I used it, which in my case was back in the 1980s. The whole thing went very smoothly and the cheque - which was for considerably more than I had expected - arrived pretty quickly.

[Richard Tarleton]

I've just realised (see front of today's Times) those cats in the central heating advert are playing Jenga. I'd seen/heard the name......

[LMcD]

Re. #26:
I mentioned 'card issuer' because my claim related to a credit card account to which PPI was added without my being consulted, but I'm sure my comments apply equally to providers of a mortgage or other financial product.

[Dave2002]

Re. #26:
I mentioned 'card issuer' because my claim related to a credit card account to which PPI was added without my being consulted, but I'm sure my comments apply equally to providers of a mortgage or other financial product.

At the end of the day (there's a hackneyed phrase) whether to bother with a PPI claim would surely depend on whether on felt that the financial product had either been grossly overcharged, or did not serve its purpose. I really can't remember what cards or mortgages we had during the periods when PPI was an issue. On balance I think I'm still prepared to let this one rest. Of course it might have been significant for some people who had large sums involved.

[pastoralguy]

Every time I see one of those TV Awards programmes with large numbers of 'celebrities' getting blotto at some fancy venue, I always think that a penny off the products that are advertised and thus pay for these shindigs might be better .