The Four Types of Televsion Commercials

Now I have researched more into broadcast advertising, I now need to focus primarily on my task, which is to produce an advertisement for a television commercial.

Since TV was invented, advertising has been one of its many features. When many homes adopted regular television-watching as a habit, advertisements were strategically placed between breaks. This has proved to be extremely helpful for businesses and institutions as the majoirty of the western world consume television and therefore consume adverts which are often relevant to them, which is done by the programme they are watching.

There are four different types of television commercials which I need to consider. This is because I will know what type of advertisement I wish to do so I can research that further, so my final advert covers all the areas it is expected to in order for it to be a success.

Traditional Television Advertisement
This is most probably the most common form of television advertisement that viewers watch in between breaks of programmes. These are the shortest types of television adverts which last around 30 to 60 seconds, meaning a message has to be put across accurately in a short period of time. These adverts began being targeted to everyone who watched Tv, but nowadays are becoming increasingly targeted to a specific audience. This has occurred when the television has expanded to offer a more diverse channel list, meaning a variety of people watch and consume television adverts. Furthermore, apart from pushing a product to increase sales, traditional television adverts make commercials entertaining for the viewer often using actors to portray a short film, they also boost the popularity of songs which are not well recognised in society.

Product Placement Advertisement
Companies that are involved in selling a consumer item, make use of product placement. This type of advertisement rely on brand indentity to help sell the product to the audience. This is because they commonly use things such as a certain car being driven with a companies logo/manafacture e.g BMW. Using this image can make an advert seem aesthetically pleasing, creating a strong message to an audience.
These companies usually pay a TV production company to incorporate their product into a commercial.

Political Advertisement
These type of television advertisements are government based projects. This method may also be used by human interests groups and religions, to help sway someones beliefs or values. Political advertisements usually occur on television when important issues need to be decided upon amongst the public e.g. the elections.

Infomercial Advertisement
Infomercials are long advetisements which run as long as a whole programme would. This is one of the least popular types of television advertisements, due to the fact that it is shown at off hours such as 3 a.m. These adverts feature surveys on a products target audience using emails and phone lines, meaning informercial advertising aims for immediate and direct responses from an audience. These commercials must state that products being advertised are part of a paid advertisement.