Advertising

A colleague raised an interesting question regarding a radio ad we both heard and, by extension, all advertising. He felt that the tone of the ad (his interpretation of the tone, that is) was not in keeping with its content and that, if it were changed to agree with his take on the content, it would have a broader appeal and garner more listeners. It must be pointed out that the ad was for something in which he has no interest at all, but he felt that the changes he proposed might make him more likely to pass the information on to others who might be interested.

I was a little perplexed. I am interested in the topic covered by the ad, and had a totally different take on the tone used to convey the content. Where he found dissonance between the two, I found them to be perfectly suited and consider myself among the target audience of the ad, being interested in the topic and having chosen the station because of its specific music genre. I pointed out that, since he didn't have the same take on the ad as me, he probably wasn't targeted by the ad and it would be senseless to change it to appeal to him, thereby possibly gaining a 2^nd hand audience by sacrificing the primary target group.

I was accused of being unable to be objective about the ad because of my interest in the topic, a statement which I can't, in all fairness, reject. If I am biased, how will I know how much that bias informs my opinion? So I put it to you; if an ad doesn't appeal to a member of its audience, should it be changed to include that person in its target group, or can it be assumed that the ad has already been tailored to its target audience and that the unwitting exposee who doesn't like it is irrelevant to the purpose of the ad? My stance should be clear.

For specific context (should it really be necessary), I refer you to the ad in question: the BlueCrashKit radio promo on Catnip Radio