I've often been heard ranting something along the lines of "god I'd hate to be Maori" or Tongan or Samoan and I can assure it's not because I'm pleased to be Pakeha, I really couldn't give a toss what ethnicity I am - after all it is just like gender - only an accident of birth.
My dislike of being born Maori/Tongan/Samoan completely relates to the patronising way they are dealt with by the government - particularly noticeable with the 'social education' campaigns. The campaigns will portray a stereotypical Maori/Tongan/Samoan - usually obese and acting semi-ridiculous (or is that just standard for TV these days?). In fact the only time I don't see an obese Maori/Tongan/Samoan in a TV advert is when it is a non-government campaign.
The only 'social eduction' campaigns I can think of that don't focus on the Maori/Tongan/Samoan is the 'Buy NZ' and 'Retirement Commission' adverts. Maybe the overpaid, braindead policymakers in Wellington think that Maori/Tongan/Samoan don't have any money to buy NZ or the brains to invest*.
Must be frustrating to be treated like you are a basket case purely based on your ethnicity. Awhile back I saw an interview with a Maori women - now living in Melbourne - she loved living away for New Zealand where she is now treated as an individual and judged on her character attributes - good or bad - not by the fact that she is Maori.
The Daily Show has a wonderful skit highlighting the changes in patronising practices now that Obama is nearly President - well worth the view.
* I can assure you when it comes to investing, ALL New Zealanders lack the brains.
Update: Well maybe not ALL, but 97% would be a fair estimate.
Showing posts with label Advertising. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Advertising. Show all posts
Sunday, 14 December 2008
Tuesday, 9 December 2008
TV advertising - stop the abuse
Now speaking of advertising, I have to complain bitterly about TV adverts - yes I know this isn't new complaint - but I have some solutions.
TV & advertising executives are concern about the lack of eyeballs watching the adverts. They believe that viewers switch the volume off or watch via MySky and skip the ads altogether. Now the MySky issue I believe is relatively minor - not that many households have MySky and don't always view TV via MySky anyway - but this could become more of a problem with MyFreeview.
But the mute button is most definitely an issue and one that I practice regularly, for my own sanity. Remotes have been around for decades, but I haven't bothered with muting until more recently. Adverts and their presentation have changed for the worst, it is the advertising executives that are to blame and here are some of my suggestions to slow the eyeball drain.
* decrease the volume of adverts - yes I know you say that the volume isn't increased, but really you're either lying or deaf. The result is we reach for the remote to decrease the volume and since we have bother to pick it up, we might as well just mute the whole ad break.
* stop the impossibly stressful high rotation of ads. The Cigna funeral ad is by itself a good ad, but once you see it twice every ad break I'm ready to smash my head against a brick wall.
* stop the shouting male voice over - I'm not deaf, once again you stress me out and I'm not going to think positively about your product/service.
* stop making the adverts so aggressive with continuous violence and smashing - once again BLOODY STRESSFUL.
* stop using voice over woman that talk either like a little child or a porn star. It frankly sounds ridiculous - I land up just mocking the product and make a point of not buying it.
And here's an idea - try programming some decent shows and we might bother to switch on in the first place. 2008 produced the shortest list of quality TV I've ever seen:
* House MD
* City Homicide
* The Daily Show
* M*A*S*H (yes it's replaying on Prime)
* Ice Road Truckers
* Outrageous Fortune
* Rove
* Back Benches
* Agenda - sadly cancelled
* Media 7
* Piha Rescue
There are possibly others? But can't think of them at the moment.
So put simply, stop ANNOYING, STRESSING and BULLING the poor TV viewer - you'll find that if we are in more relaxed frame-of-mind we will just sit there and mindlessly watch your ads - possibly even happily.
Side Issue 1: To combat the eyeball problem, product placement has become more common practice. Don't mind this at all, great idea, but suggest that it needs to make sense or it will just look stupid - for example - the latest 007 movie placed Gordons Gin in a cocktail recipe on a first-class flight. You have to be kidding - Bond would never drink Gordons and first-class would never serve it. They would have Tanqueray - or maybe the lesser Bombay Sapphire!
Side Issue 2: What's with the perfume ads lately - they look like they are made in Europe and are frankly bizarre and amateurish. Maybe they should think about making them in New Zealand - because I may complain about the issues around our TV advertising, but our advertising production teams do come up with some classic ads.
TV & advertising executives are concern about the lack of eyeballs watching the adverts. They believe that viewers switch the volume off or watch via MySky and skip the ads altogether. Now the MySky issue I believe is relatively minor - not that many households have MySky and don't always view TV via MySky anyway - but this could become more of a problem with MyFreeview.
But the mute button is most definitely an issue and one that I practice regularly, for my own sanity. Remotes have been around for decades, but I haven't bothered with muting until more recently. Adverts and their presentation have changed for the worst, it is the advertising executives that are to blame and here are some of my suggestions to slow the eyeball drain.
* decrease the volume of adverts - yes I know you say that the volume isn't increased, but really you're either lying or deaf. The result is we reach for the remote to decrease the volume and since we have bother to pick it up, we might as well just mute the whole ad break.
* stop the impossibly stressful high rotation of ads. The Cigna funeral ad is by itself a good ad, but once you see it twice every ad break I'm ready to smash my head against a brick wall.
* stop the shouting male voice over - I'm not deaf, once again you stress me out and I'm not going to think positively about your product/service.
* stop making the adverts so aggressive with continuous violence and smashing - once again BLOODY STRESSFUL.
* stop using voice over woman that talk either like a little child or a porn star. It frankly sounds ridiculous - I land up just mocking the product and make a point of not buying it.
And here's an idea - try programming some decent shows and we might bother to switch on in the first place. 2008 produced the shortest list of quality TV I've ever seen:
* House MD
* City Homicide
* The Daily Show
* M*A*S*H (yes it's replaying on Prime)
* Ice Road Truckers
* Outrageous Fortune
* Rove
* Back Benches
* Agenda - sadly cancelled
* Media 7
* Piha Rescue
There are possibly others? But can't think of them at the moment.
So put simply, stop ANNOYING, STRESSING and BULLING the poor TV viewer - you'll find that if we are in more relaxed frame-of-mind we will just sit there and mindlessly watch your ads - possibly even happily.
Side Issue 1: To combat the eyeball problem, product placement has become more common practice. Don't mind this at all, great idea, but suggest that it needs to make sense or it will just look stupid - for example - the latest 007 movie placed Gordons Gin in a cocktail recipe on a first-class flight. You have to be kidding - Bond would never drink Gordons and first-class would never serve it. They would have Tanqueray - or maybe the lesser Bombay Sapphire!
Side Issue 2: What's with the perfume ads lately - they look like they are made in Europe and are frankly bizarre and amateurish. Maybe they should think about making them in New Zealand - because I may complain about the issues around our TV advertising, but our advertising production teams do come up with some classic ads.
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