I mentioned DVR’s effects on commercials in an earlier post, and now we have an example of someone trying to do something about it.  Who would have thought it would be some virtual phone system company to try it.

Well, it’s certainly an interesting concept and will get them a lot of buzz.  The reality of all this is that it really won’t make a difference.  Sure a few people will notice the grasshopper in fast forward but the text isn’t there long enough to actually be noticed.  Not to mention the fact that most DVR systems have a 30 second skip or something similar that could make of this hard work go to waste.  Interesting concept, but this is not the solution.

As for the commercial itself, watching it at normal speed when you can actually see it, is very boring.  It’s almost as if it was meant to be seen in FF without the sound.

And why is the grasshopper talking on the phone while driving?  Bad grasshopper!

While looking around for a good story today I got to thinking about this past year.  I can remember some stand out ads from magazines I read but absolutely no TV commercials are popping into my mind.  I’m sure there are a few good ones but it is strange that I can’t think of any.

Further thinking on the matter I realized that I don’t watch much live TV anymore.  I always watch episodes of shows that I have on my computer or sometimes shows that pop up On Demand.  This is much more the case for people with TiVO.

I know this is old news.  However, I never realized how few commercials I personally see any more.  It’s quite strange.  I watch more commercials on Youtube than I do on TV.  I hear someone mention a funny or good commercial so I search for it online to watch it.

That is another interesting evolution of the commercial.  With sites like Youtube people are actually searching for specific commercials so they can watch them.  The people who still catch them when they air spread the news to their friends, and those people care enough to go out of their way to watch the commercials.  The fact that Youtube tracks the views makes it all the better.  You have numbers for how many people watched the commercial… and since they chose to watch it they actually paid attention.

Yes this is a bunch of rambling, but it’s what is on my mind today.  The ever changing world of advertising is always getting more and more interesting.