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Just before the top of the hour, during a commercial island the size of Manhattan, a "Tarahna" station played an ad for Cadillac, then an ad, then a BMW ad.
I always thought that to air competing company ads side by side, and even close together was a huge conflict. It sure as heck was during my on-air days.
Did someone not catch the scheduling glitch?
Or is this now "busyness ad usual."
Online!
All I heard was the latest test of the emergency alert system. Damn! Now we'll never know what Jerry Agar really thinks about the proposed new distracted driving legislation!
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It is illegal to air two ads from competing companies side by side.
The real question is: What is done about it when it actually happens?
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Illegal or gauche? The provincial parliament actually voted on an advertising 'law'?
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watch tv? Hyundai to GM to Toyota
Radiowiz wrote:
It is illegal to air two ads from competing companies side by side.
No.
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If a radio station's smart (insert disbelieving snort here?) they could organize a block of ads the way a band creates a set list for a gig. Or the way radio jocks used to have an ebb and flow to their tunes.
Listeners will always want to switch stations, but keeping the energy level changing during the break, could help prevent a station switch.
It's hard enough to get advertisers. Imagine dropping a whack of money, and hearing your competition in the same ad block ...not good.
The fact that most luxury car ads sound similar (female with sultry read) doesn't help.
How many people didn't care enough about those two advertisers for the Cadillac and BMW ads to get grouped together?
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Don wrote:
Radiowiz wrote:
It is illegal to air two ads from competing companies side by side.
No.
Yes.
Don wrote:
Link to it then.
Yes a source would be much nicer than a one-word holier-than-thou-sounding assurance.
Running conflicting spots is generally a no-no but it being illegal is something I've never heard in my piddly fifteen years in the business. I'll run a conflict tomorrow and wait for the police to knock down my door.
betaylored wrote:
If a radio station's smart (insert disbelieving snort here?) they could organize a block of ads the way a band creates a set list for a gig.
**Snorts disbelievingly**
These days, not so much. It's quite likely one person looks after the scheduling of multiple stations, some of them may even be out-of-market as the corps continue to centralize and automate.
Also, exclusivity can be written into or out of any sales contract.
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I'd like to see proof of this "illegality" as well. I do recall there used to be hourly limits for advertising certain products but nothing about back to back competitors.
But maybe it's actually something deliberate. One day, during the Employment hour on AM640, I heard a spot for Kornblum law. It could have very well been a glitch but maybe, just maybe, it was done deliberately to make the show sound less like paid programming.
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Mistakes happen. Honest. I doubt VERY much that any client wants his competitor advertising in time he's paid for. But.. shit happens. Someone isn't back in the studio in time, op has to fill, grabs a spot, and it's a conflict. Sales/Traffic screws up and codes a spot wrong, and it plays back to back with one coded properly. Someone needs to fill to a network break or newscast, grabs a spot, creates a conflict. This stuff happens, humans are involved, and though every failsafe is taken, people are.. um.. human.
There are also more of some spots than others, lawyers, cars, real estate, etc. If you only have n breaks an hour, and need to run y spots, they have to go somewhere. So they're at the start and end of a break.. and again, shit happens.
This is one of those threads I can't believe has gone on for as long as it has.
As for illegal, that's a new one on me. Other than some type of combines investigation act, I can't imagine who would prosecute or for what reason. I can certainly see the client bursting a few blood vessels, but I also want to be on the other end of the line when they call 911 to report the crime .