The Power of Advertising

Posted by Tad Johnson - Mar 10th, 2008 at 5:03

Since my college days, I’ve been decreasing the amount of regular broadcast television I consume. For my favorite shows that I can’t live without, I view or download online. This system has been a great money saver, since 1) I don’t own a TV and 2) I don’t pay for cable television.

What I’ve discovered is that there’s a third financial benefit : less consumer spending, which I attribute to less advertisements.

The average 30 minute television program has 6 minutes of ads (generally 30 seconds per). Each of those 12 advertisements is created by exceptionally well trained professionals who are paid to do one thing : convince you to spend your money on product X. Regardless of how “immune” you think you are to advertisements, decades of research (and multi-billion dollar ad budgets) would suggest otherwise.

Contrast this with online viewing, where you get between 0 and 90 seconds of advertising per 30 minute segment. Already you’ve cut out at least 75% of your TV ad exposure. Think your consumer spending might drop as well? You bet!

I’m making some tall claims here, and I admittedly lack empirical data to back them up. Even so, conceptually this makes sense. As a vicenarian, you would do yourself a favor by cutting back on regular TV and the ads that come along with it. Services like Hulu, iTunes, or less-than-legal sites like PirateBay are waiting with open arms for your view-share. Give it a try and see if your spending changes as a result.

5 Comments »

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  1. You’ll be splitting cable soon!

    Comment by Ryan — March 10, 2008 #

  2. That’s what you think!

    Comment by Tad — March 10, 2008 #

  3. I know this should have gone in the “Cut the Cable” post comments, but I will make an argument for cable in the setting of bundled packages (i.e. the Madison Charter monopoly).

    I pay $115/mo for basic+expanded+all premiums cable, DVR, and 5 Mb internet. By itself, 5 Mb internet is $70/mo. That leaves $45, and I would argue that the combination of nearly every channel, DVR (no commercials), and onDemand (also no commercials) are totally worth that.

    Even better, I share our internet with our neighbors (- $20/mo) and have a roommate with whom I spilt the cost. $12.50/mo seems pretty reasonable to me!

    YMMV naturally.

    Comment by Eric — March 11, 2008 #

  4. More relevant to the advertising topic, I can’t wait to do this with my kids.

    Comment by Eric — March 11, 2008 #

  5. Great article, Eric! That’s truly inspiring to all those young (and future) parents out there.

    Comment by Tad Johnson — March 11, 2008 #

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