In the United States it seems that any time you are watching cable and the commercials come on there is an add for some pharmaceutical product. Well, Super Bowl LII may not have pharmaceutical ads according to an article by PR Week. According to the article for a 30 second ad in the Super Bowl it will cost $5 million. The price tag may not be the only thing that is keeping the pharmaceutical companies form the Super Bowl. Due to the demeanor of most Super Bowl ads where the public is watching with the expectation of entertainment, an ad about a serious illness does not really fit the mood of the Super Bowl.
The price tag is a big factor for the pharmaceutical ads as a good portion of their ads is dedicated to informing the consumer of the potential side effects of whatever drug they are promoting. If the company can only afford a 30 second slot for an ad in the Super Bowl, they have a greatly limited amount of time for the rest of the actual ad. If they want to solve the time limit problem they could pay another couple million dollars for a few more seconds in their ad slot. The article also points out that the ad that company produces needs to have the right tone. An ad designed to entertain the public may come off as insensitive to the people that suffer from that illness.
The nature of many Super Bowl ads is that of entertainment which is often in the form of comedy. Putting an ad about a serious disease can really kill the mood of the Super Bowl ads and leave the audience with a sour taste in their mouth about that product. Many pharmaceutical companies have an audience targeted toward a very specific group of people. Therefore, most of the money that they spend on ads is spent in areas where those demographics are predominately present. An ad in the Super Bowl is to a much wider demographic, which would therefore dilute the effectiveness of the ad for a much larger price.
For some companies, an ad to a large audience like the Super Bowl may be beneficial. For companies that have a product for the mass population, such as ibuprofen, an ad in the Super Bowl would be very beneficial for name recognition as long as they can handle the price tag and the short time slot.
When the Super Bowl airs it will be interesting to see if any pharmaceutical companies decide to air an ad, or if they will save their money and focus on more specific demographics during other television programs.
This is very interesting. When I think of pharmaceutical companies I think about how much money they are making. I would've never thought they would miss an opportunity to advertise their products. It will be interesting to see if they decide not to air any ads during the super bowl.
ReplyDeleteHi! It's Moe. Your post taught me companies should think about where they will advertise them not only how. I did not know that it is also important thing of advertisement. From today, I try to watch commercial carefully what kind of companies advertise them on what kind of television program.
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