Commercial Production

[RDO]

Just heard a commercial on Radio Disney promoting a show at Clowes Hall. And, yes, they called it Clothes Hall.

While we're on the subject of commercial production. I find it very unprofessional when stations have their production voice/staff read commercials in first person. Unless he/she is a spokesperson for the company or brand being promoted, then there should never be a first person reference.

I've been hearing it alot on WIBC. Their regular prodcution guy is doing it. So is Jimmy Matis. Did you know he works at Pita Pit? In the commercial, he tells me that "we even deliver". But earlier in the commercial he does use third person to talk about the place. "They..."

We're killing this business ourselves, people. Please try to put together a quality, professional product.

 

[bigtime]

When times are tight, people tend to bend the rules. Or maybe they don't know or care about those rules as long as the check clears.

 

[Hoosierky]

Going through St Louis the week, I noticed that K-Hits (96.3) had jocks doing live reads ala Paul Harvey (R.I.P). They even insuated that they were doing a remote at a car wash, but with no background noise or anything! Sounded phony to me. BTW, just remembered, both are Emmis stations..hmm.

 

[radiorob2.0]

Just heard a commercial on Radio Disney promoting a show at Clowes Hall. And, yes, they called it Clothes Hall.

While we're on the subject of commercial production. I find it very unprofessional when stations have their production voice/staff read commercials in first person. Unless he/she is a spokesperson for the company or brand being promoted, then there should never be a first person reference.

I've been hearing it alot on WIBC. Their regular prodcution guy is doing it. So is Jimmy Matis. Did you know he works at Pita Pit? In the commercial, he tells me that "we even deliver". But earlier in the commercial he does use third person to talk about the place. "They..."

We're killing this business ourselves, people. Please try to put together a quality, professional product.

Much of the issue lies with the loss of something resembling a copywriter/creative service director. I was shocked to learn WABC Radio New York didn't have a copy department. If a spot had to be written it was done by the sales person.

I've preached about using third person for the reasons you state but anymore first person is all I receive. Sometimes I change it back to third person on the fly while producing the spot. But once in a while I just don't feel like changing it and read it as it is. My favorite first person cliche, "At Acme Industries, We believe in quality....." when it should be, "Acme Industries believes in quality....".

But the question to ask is how often do you hear a commercial today that isn't simply rip and read? Radio, and TV for that matter, could create amazing campaigns in house back in the day when there was just one or two stations in the building. Until deregulation an AM/FM combo would have a copy person for each station. Today if they have a copy person, there are sometimes a half of dozen stations they have to juggle killing any chances of creativity, just the basics in thirty or sixty seconds.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

My favorite has to be the the formulaic "drop-in the calls" spot. For example, "Are you a self-driven sales type? Well <blank> has an opening in our sales department. For information, call Joe Blow, General Sales Manager, at 425-6789." The blank gets filled with the call letters, or worse the brand name, of one of the stations in the cluster.

"Well Q95 has an opening"...
"Well X103 has an opening..."
"Well SportsRadio 1260 WNDE has an opening..."

Which always turns out sounding un-natural. This didn't happen at CC Indy, names were changed to protect the guilty.

I think its amazing that freelance voice guys make a living. Except for national advertisers whose spots are produced by their agency, I hear 100% locals reading copy in Evansville. We do have Brian Jackson working for an agency producing spots. A lot of jocks. A LOT of clients too.