Over the last few weeks I have watched a lot of OTA tv. Some things I have recorded but mostly I just surf the channels looking for something interesting.\u00a0\u00a0OTA tv is filled with channels of old sitcoms, old movies, old westerns, news, public broadcasts, cop shows, and shopping. I usually watch the evening network news, some local news, and some of the Sunday morning news shows. Other than that it is a mixture of anything I find entertaining. Sometimes I have the tv on in the background to break the silence and I\u2019m not really paying much attention at all.\u00a0\u00a0I do have online access to just about any show I want, but they all use my data so I try to limit them as much as possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As it became clear how exasperating and how much of our time was exposed to commercials, I figured I might as well make a game of it. As I watched the endless assault of marketing, I realized that the commercial breaks are flooded with several categories of ads. I was pretty sure some ads were way more prevalent than others so I started tabulating type and quantity just to see which products were pushed the most. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This study of commercials is far from scientific as I realize the target for OTA tv may be quite different than cable or satellite, and that even during different shows there would be a different audience to exploit. During the day, the audience would be more retired people, and science and news programs would probably be a different target. The psychology of marketing is way above me and I don\u2019t pretend to understand much of it. This was just a fun way to waste a little time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some commercials ran longer than others and I made mental footnotes of length but did not tabulate it in any statistic. There are endless categories of products and I took some liberty in my grouping, however I didn\u2019t stray far from the idea of the product. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We all know that marketing is a multi-billion dollar industry, and without all the money spent on advertising, things could be a lot cheaper. And marketing isn\u2019t just about commercials. Everything we do online or in a store is being tabulated in databases that track our every whim. Whether we like it or not our privacy is being shared and sold to everyone that wants a piece of our dollar. But I digress. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here are the categories in no particular order. See if you can guess who spends the most on advertising? Just comment on the top 5 you think have the highest frequency of ads in my non-scientific game. I\u2019ll release the results in a few days after everyone that wants to play has seen it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
1: Cosmetics-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2: Electronics-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3: Insurance-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4: Vehicles-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5: Detergent-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6: Travel-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
7: Internet-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
8: Apparel-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
9: Pharmaceutical-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
10: Credit Card-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
11: Food-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
12: Investment-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
13: Appliances-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
14: Charity-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
15: Alcohol-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
16: Attorneys-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
17: Home Repair-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
18: Pets-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
19: Real estate-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most are self-explanatory. Insurance includes health, auto and home. I grouped cars, trucks and RVs into vehicles. Food was tough and I tallied even if they advertised a food store. Alcohol can be beer, wine, and whisky. Pets are food or health products.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Over the last few weeks I have watched a lot of OTA tv. Some things I have recorded but mostly I just surf the channels looking for something interesting.\u00a0\u00a0OTA tv is filled with channels of old sitcoms, old movies, old westerns, news, public broadcasts, cop shows, and shopping. I usually watch the evening network news, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-outdoors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2785"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2786,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2785\/revisions\/2786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}