Post written by VegBlogger. Follow me on Twitter.
Do you have a favorite prime time television shows that you watch? My favorites are "Lie to Me" and "CSI." Ever wonder how much one of the commercials costs that run during the show? Advertising Age recently ran an article showing the breakdown of what a 30-second spot costs. The amount varies, depending on the show, with the price being determined largely by viewership.
For example, the 30-second spots that run while watching my favorite shows cost the advertiser $128,305 and $198,647, respectively. And that's not the most expensive spots. The most expensive run during "Sunday Night Football," with a price of $339,700 per spot. If you watch "Grey's Anatomy," the ads you see run cost $240,462 each. You can see the whole breakdown by show here.
I bring this up for a couple of reasons. First, the vast amount of money that companies spend to push their products on people. In a world where people are starving to death and living in poverty it all seems so grossly out of balance. Business survival issues aside, there are still issues with it. Another reason is because many commercials are often made up of cheap fast food products. These companies are spending a fortune per 30-second spot to advertise cheap, unhealthy (and largely non-vegetarian) food that is also usually damaging to the environment.
And these are just commercials during evening shows, it doesn't even mention all the money spent on advertising during children's shows. While the per-spot cost may be lower, they seem to be running on many channels.
According to the American Psychological Association, advertisers spend around $12 billion per year marketing to young people and the average child views around 40,000 television commercials each year. This is why limiting and monitoring a child's television habits is so important. While you may be touting the merits of eating healthy or vegetarianism to your child, there's a good chance the advertisers have you beat. After all, it's doubtful your kids are hearing your messages even half the amount of times of that of the advertiser.
Just some food for thought for the next time you are watching your favorite weekly show.
Comments