As Kevin knows far too well, I’m a fan of some trash TV every now and again. Okay, okay — pretty frequently. I’m not especially proud that I regularly log onto mtv.com to view such highbrow programs as Jersey Shore and Teen Mom, but, alas, it’s the truth.
But not all time spent watching these shows counts as wasted time, because I keep my advertising hat on and take note of elements throughout. And lately, I’ve been interested by the commercials played on mtv.com because they play several commercials for different brands within the same category back to back.
Earlier this week, during a single commercial break, I saw two ads for Trident (their new “Fun audit” social media campaign) and two ads for Dentyne (their “Practice safe breath” campaign touting the new Split2Fit packs). Then came a 5 Gum ad (“Stimulate your senses”).
This practice is traditionally unheard of in the broadcast world, so I’m interested to know the logic behind it (and how MTV got these brands to sign up for such an approach). I spent some time on Google trying to hunt down someone else who was commenting on this new custom, but wasn’t able to find anything.
Has anyone else noticed this, either on mtv.com or elsewhere? Kevin says he’s seen back-to-back AT&T and Verizon commercials on another network, so it seems as though MTV isn’t the lone player on this new field.
I’m not sure how I feel about this yet. On one hand, I sure was thinking about gum after seeing three gum brands advertised multiple times during a single half-hour show. But I was also thinking about three different kinds of gum — so is that ultimately effective?
I realize I pay more attention to these things than the average viewer given my line of work, but I’m interested to know other people’s thoughts. Do you like this new ad approach?
