With the world cup underway in India and a long IPL season to follow cricket will be coming out of our mouths and advertising out of our ears for the next few months. The vexed issue of too much advertising always seems to come up and even a Supreme Court justice has complained that the ads have started interfering with the showing of the game.
Cricket is simply God sent for advertisers and advertising agencies. To begin with its popularity in India far exceeds that of Bollywood and the glamour, passion and fierce fan following that comes with it can only be compared to popular deities in the Indian Pantheon of Gods.
Now comes the crucial part – which game in the world has so many mini breaks in the form of the entire team changing ends after each and every over. These innocuous little advertising breaks actually fund the entire bonanza for players, brands, advertisers, advertising agencies, cricketers, cricket associations across the country .It provides pensions for retired cricketers and many other activities that lead to a trickle down economy positively impacting a wide range of industries including travel and hospitality. Its impact can be measured by the fact that big films cannot be released during crucial phases of the tournament. And more importantly, millions and millions of customers are glued to the television and roaring to send the TRP’s soaring.
So what’s the problem? Ads, ads and more ads to the point of irritation, bombarding you every 3 minutes. And to rub salt into your bruised mind they are repetitive ads that you see 25 times and more- like the Vimal Pan Masala ad with Ajay Devgan – it can simply drive you crazy!
But there is no solution apparently – bulk buying gets the advertiser the best rates, soaring TRP’s justify steep costs and the Indian consumer will not pay more for content however good it is.
But I think consumers develop a blind spot for very repetitive ads and the advertiser is wasting money. Scarier is the possibility that I get pissed off with the brand because my team is losing and the ad goes on innocently without understanding my present state of mind – Just imagine a tense match with Pakistan and ads intruding with inane messages… Grrrrrrr…
