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Whatdidhesay?

E

Element9

It hit me a few months ago while listening to a barrage of commercials on the radio, many of those for car dealerships local and national.

There'sgottabealawabouthyperfastspeeddisclaimersattheendofcommercials.

It's ridiculous. Absurd! I've heard chipmunks speak slower. The straw that broke the camel's back came yesterday when I heard a financial commercial. The market was in free fall mode and there was one of those slippery investment company commercials. At the end, Mr. FastTalker did the legal disclaimer in record time and it occured to me, here's one of the small reasons we're in this mess. Pure gibberish.
 
This has more to do with lawyers taking over society than it does with radio. Certain products like car financing and leasing deals and disclaimers for medicines etc. have to carry preposterous recitations of "terms and conditions" to avoid legal entanglements. It's the same reason car dealers have TV sale commercials with six lines of densely-packed print with interest rates, payment terms, early termination penalties and so forth displayed on the screen for four seconds. Nobody cares whether the "disclaimer" can actually be read/heard and understood. It just "has to be there" so the client can say the customer "was fully advised."

On WYSL, we have to run a "disclaimer disclaimer" applicable to our TV-10 simulcasts. Our version cautions that obviously TV commercials heard on WYSL do not include the visual component, so listeners are warned to "contact advertisers directly" about car financing and lease deals and not to rely solely on the audio "in making purchase decisions." I did this pursuant to a deal I struck with the local Attorney General to avoid getting WYSL or WHEC-TV in hot water.
 
As long as they say "details in store" at the end, I'm sure it's all good. ;)

(in other words, always read the fine print)

My best advice is to record it and play it back slower, if you can.

In the event that you find a catch that they are *best* hiding, be sure to let us all know...
 
The ability to speed up those car ad disclaimers is

HUGE!

(Sorry, couldn't resist.)

BTW since when is "huge" a two syllable word?
 
Only two? I've heard him spread that out into at least three, sometimes four syllables! :)

For that matter, if I ever run into either Cellino or Barnes on the street, they're gonna need a good personal injury attorney by the time I'm done with them. ::) I hate those ads...
 
Disclaimers are necessary, however, again, radio takes the easy way out, and so does every other media in this case. Instead of coming up with a creative way to package a disclaimer, we just add it to get it done quick, satisfy the rules, and rip and read. No thought, no caring, no creativlty, no nothing.
 
Gee, how much creativity do you expect from this month's crop of sales kiddies who have minimal training and are thrown out on the street? Best of all, they're college graduates who think that they know more about writing compelling copy than production pros who have been in the business for decades. Not only that, but they don't have a clue as to how much copy can fit comforatably into a :60, especially when you throw in a jingle at the end. You wonder why the spot gets passed on to a jock who's trying to knock it out AFAP either before or after his airshift? He knows that you can't get that many words into the given time, but he also knows that he can speed up the read artificially without changing the pitch. Voila - :60 seconds with no breath sounds, at a speed that would make John Moschitta, Jr. wince.

Add corporate lawyers to the mix, with their aversion to frivolous lawsuits, and you get the unintelligible gobbledygook cited above.
 
No Excuses

I wasn't making excuses. I was simply stating the conditions that lead to such "product".

There's an easy answer. HIRE ADDITIONAL TALENTED PRODUCTION PEOPLE AND COPY WRITERS.

Yeah, like THAT will happen. Heh.
 
Interesting thoughts. I see Jeffrey Hedquist, noted multiple award-winning writer/producer and VO talent bemoaned the overall lack of creativity in radio commercials as he traveled across the country at the recent NAB convention..

Cramming a couple of hundred words into 60 seconds is an age-old problem brought on many times by clients that want as much information about their business as possible into their commercial. I think often that the salesperson, rather than have a discussion with the client(gotta keep 'em happy!) about too many thoughts in the spot, simply says "no problem! Sure, we can do that" and passes the problem onto the production person who has to make it fit.

Then, many times, it's "I tried radio and it didn't work" and client is lost anyway. It seems to me it would be better show some expertise and have a frank discussion upfront about what makes up a great commercial, create and produce one and help the client have a successful campaign.
 
Rox, who says corporate lawyers have an "aversion" to "frivolous lawsuits?" That's what they live for! (Any lawyer knows, no action that produces billable hours is ever frivolous! It doesn't make any difference which side you're on - you get paid regardless!)

Just remember the old truism: any town that's too small to support one lawyer, can always support two. ;)
 
Grrr-rate

Savage said:
Rox, who says corporate lawyers have an "aversion" to "frivolous lawsuits?" That's what they live for! (Any lawyer knows, no action that produces billable hours is ever frivolous! It doesn't make any difference which side you're on - you get paid regardless!)

Just remember the old truism: any town that's too small to support one lawyer, can always support two. ;)
Click to expand...

Counsellor, as usual I defer to you on legal matters. We should all be thankful that you're not charging us billable hours for your informed opinions.
 
well.....instead of
thesuperfast*Talkattheend(of the spot)

would this be better,

"....(end of spot), that number again,
800 ###,be sure to call today. Oh, and when you
do call , a gentle reminder of the legal items we must
mention, as we do it for your protection as well as ours.
Every applicant is subject to a credit pre Screen, which
includes, however is not limited to the following
(is any one else still reading, or listening on this
potential radio spot)....

THE CRTC requires 97.7 CHTZ to do the
"GENERAL" announcement for the decency(?sp)
standards on the aire, and they do an amazing
job* I am actually surprised, it can be that
"jazzed" up and , well not as traditional as
say, other stations may present it - say,
CHUM-FM or stations, that just read it dry.....
 
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