And now a word from our sponsor…
Advertising pays for content. Anytime you aren’t paying for a product, as this generation discovered thanks to social media, you are the product being sold. When commercial television was born in the USA, it was as a vehicle for advertising, as all mass media have been. Shows were created by advertisers to capture attention and sell products, there was no line between content and advertising. The host would often introduce segue with the classic line, making clear that the brand was an active participant.
Cigarettes brought you the Camel News Caravan, Fred and Wilma Flintstone unwinding at the end of an episode by sharing a Winston and The Hit Parade was ‘lightly toasted’ with performances of classics that were known as “Lucky Strike Extras.”
Eventually the economics of content production and monetization shifted towards spot advertising, which is what we largely have today. A show has commercial airtime that it sells in 30 second chunks, often as part of complex deals.
But is it still endorsement or are advertisers separated from the content they are paying for by virtue of a complex supply chain? Does an advertiser have responsibility for the content it supports and does that…
