Ad-Sales Decline, Quality Of Advertising Follows

Hamilton Nolan at Gawker wrote an interesting post about the decline of good advertising on television. It’s been quite noticeable lately (in New York at least) how many prime-time advertising spots have been bought by what seems to be infomercial and low-production-value spots. The glitzy Lexus ads have been replaced with advertisements for smock-like blankets with long-sleeves, Amish-made faux-fireplace heaters and strange, mouth-aligned goatee trimmers. Nolan writes:

The collapse of ad sales, and the decline of the auto industry, means that even regular networks—and even, sometimes, in prime time—are increasingly forced to plug empty spots with cheap ass infomercial standbys.

Advertising Age reports that Snuggie, the wizard-like sleeved blanket purveyor has sold more than four million units in a little over three months:

With 4 million of the blankets already shipped or on order, or just under $40 million in retail sales, Scott Boilen, president of Allstar Marketing Group, Hawthorne, N.Y., is laughing all the way to the bank. The company behind the Snuggie is moving the blankets out the door as fast as it can get Chinese suppliers to crank them out.

Could sales have been as strong without the influx of cheap and available ad-space? Sounds like an opportunity these infomercial-merchandisers took full advantage of.

Gawker – The Slow Death Of Good Commercials