Last Updated on August 11, 2011
When times get tough, you have to look for creative ways to keep the budget out of the red.
Most of us realize that.  The same is true of the television industry, which is suffering huge losses in the economic mess we’re in right now.
One result of TV’s desire to make up for shortfalls is the acceptance of sponsorship ads for more “grown up” products.  Absolut Vodka commercials aired in 15 cities during the Grammy awards.  It was the first time in years that liquor ads ran in prime time on network-owned stations.
Not that it’s all a television problem.  The L.A. Times also reports that the NBA has rescinded a ban on courtside ads for liquor.  Even Google and Facebook have loosened such restrictions for web ads they run.
Which takes me back to my first statement.  Let me repeat it for you:  “When times get tough, you have to look for creative ways to keep the budget out of the red.”
Still with me?  Good.
The president of the Parents Television Council, a watchdog group that polices television and urges boycots of anything it thinks you shouldn’t see, seems to be on the same page with me, too.  Here’s what he said in that same article:
“When you have the evaporation of advertising revenue, you have to look for new and creative ways of getting sellers in the door.”
So we’re all on the same page.
Kind of.
When you go to the PTC’s website, the “top story” is a hatchet job on the restaurant Jack in the Box, which PTC accuses of pulling a “Jackyll and Hyde on families.”  PTC says that despite the fact that Jack in the Box wants families to eat at its restaurants, it sponsors “some of the most graphic and anti-family friendly programming on television today.”
PTC is asking Jack in the Box to pull its sponsorship.  Because it doesn’t like the shows during which the restaurant’s ads air.
And by asking an advertiser to stop advertising, PTC has a hand in fueling the very same budget shortfall that is causing it to lament the addition of liquor ads in the family hour.
Never-ending cycle, anyone?
Maybe, just maybe, if a slow economy requires that television stations change their standards a little to be able to make ends meet, then maybe, just maybe, it’s time for PTC to consider following suit.
Not by encouraging more of the same financial fallout, but by focusing all of its efforts on praising the companies that advertise during programs it considers “acceptable.”
The reality of the situation when it comes to buying advertising is that you, the sponsor, decide who your “target audience” is.  Then you buy advertising at times where the Nielsen ratings show the most members of that target audience is actually watching.  You don’t really give a hoot whether that time is during Lost, 24 or Desperate Housewives.  You’re looking for the audience, not the program.
Your favorite show on television might be Days of Our Lives, but if you’re an advertiser and ‘Days’ doesn’t deliver who you want to reach, you’re an idiot to buy a commercial during that show.  Worse, you’re throwing your money away, jeopardizing your business and your employees.
So I wonder how long it’ll take groups like the PTC to stop calling for boycots of either businesses that run ads during shows it thinks aren’t appropriate or for ad boycots of the shows themselves, and instead refocus itself on spotlighting what’s right.
Accentuating the positive is a lot tougher than whining about the negative.  I guess that’s why PTC doesn’t consider that if it gets its way, television may well have to open the door a little wider to whomever is willing to pay for advertising.
