Advertainment for Attention

What is advertisement when it is not combined with entertainment? No one knows because they skip over the ad and filter it into their spam folder. One of the greatest challenges in advertisement is to grab the consumer’s attention and maintain their interest. Today, I feel that an advertisement must incorporate some entertainment to intrigue the consumer. Advertainment is the merge of advertisement and entertainment. Because there are so many brands, products, and services that surround a person everyday, ads must stand out above the rest. Otherwise it is just more clutter and noise.

            Although the term “advertainment” has been recently defined as the hybrid advertisement, advertainment had been around for a long time. One example of advertainment is product placement in television, radio, films, and video games. One early example of a famous advertainment is form the television show, “I Love Lucy.” During the show, the program discovered a way to keep their audiences from changing channels by entertaining them as well as selling a product. Therefore, Lucy and Ricky can be seen in multiple episodes being spokespeople for Philip Morris Cigarettes. “Don’t say cigarettes, say Philip Morris,” is one of Lucy’s lines in the commercial. This was usually at the end of the episode and kept the actors in character while advertising the cigarettes.

            Don’t be fooled that advertainment is as simple as putting a product or service on an entertainment media and BAM it works. It needs to be known that it is an actual product or service and not something made up or a part of the show. One advertainment that went south was the “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast in 1938.  Here, although the hosts did say the program was fictionally based on H. G. Wells book “War of the Worlds,” they did not anticipate how many listeners chime in and out every few minutes. Because this was not taken into consideration, the hosts did not rely the fact that the advertainment was in fact based on a book. Therefore, many audiences took the story as actual news and began to panic.

            Also, there is a degree of too much entertainment in an advertainment. Take a look at the recent Old Spice Muscle Music. Although the muscle music as visually and audibly entertaining, it lacks two important aspects of its advertising. First off, it has nothing to do with the product. If a consumer were to see this interactive video, they would have no knowledge of what he is trying to sell or the purpose of his musical muscles. Secondly, it lacks the trait of getting consumers to want to purchase Old Spice. True, the muscle music is entertaining and quite rememberable, however, in the end it has no aspect of convincing the audience to purchase Old Spice.

            With all of the advertisement clutter we consume everyday, it is impressive if a person remembers an ad. Majority of the ‘clutter’ is looked over or no even noticed by the viewers. For this reason I feel that most advertisers have felt a need o think in the hybrid advertising. Furthermore I feel that the consumers are beginning to expect to be entertained if the advertiser wants their attention. Of course, nothing in advertisement has a permanent shelf live. What is working one day may become a failure the next.