Comments on: Ellen Runs Live Commercial for Advil; Will Blogs Follow Suit?

By: Frederic Guarino

Frederic Guarino — Fri, 22 May 2009 18:34:10 +0000

great post, Allen, as always ! Live ads on radio are already premium-priced and the return of live ads on TV is a full circle. Pre-videotape, all ads were live – see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gzm9t2R1jXY for Lucy & Desi’s ads for cigarettes !
I agree with you that “sponsored” conversations will continue to grow on all networks and that an industry practice will need to emerge.

By: Michael J Pratt

Michael J Pratt — Fri, 22 May 2009 11:57:06 +0000

While I agree with you that the boundaries of ad placements are starting to expand into all sorts of new realms, sadly the inertia of the ad dollars remains amazingly high. Most ad execs are stuck in the past and are still so comfortable with what they know – expensive TV, ineffective banners, etc. This is evident in how easy it is to get $$ for those types of campaigns and what a struggle it is to get $$ for the forward thinking ones. Doesn’t mean we stop trying.
Of course, then there’s the question of the line of ethical behavior. Transparency is obviously key. Ellen made no bones about what she was doing (in her classically sarcastic way!) but I wonder if the FTC will scream “regulate” like they did recently about paid blog posts.

By: Brian Breslin

Brian Breslin — Fri, 22 May 2009 03:27:01 +0000

Allen, this type of stuff is extremely popular on spanish tv. just google sabado gigante, their host don francisco has been doing these for 40 years. the show is like a glorified ad.