By Sarah Falson
SYDNEY: Various television networks have banned an LG Electronics television commercial advertising the company’s new range of LCD and plasma TVs with built-in PVRs because they promote ad-skipping.
The 30-second slot was scheduled to debut on networks Seven, Nine, Ten, SBS and some stations on MCn (Multi-Channel network) yesterday, but LG’s advertising agency was informed by the TV networks that their advertisement would be rejected unless they amended one crucial line that said: "When you replay, you can skip the ads".
The fact that the television ad was promoting ad-skipping – a major revenue-maker for commercial television stations – caused the networks such alarm that LG agreed to re-record the voiceover to replace the problematic line with: “And when you replay, you can skip straight back to the action", which refers to the LiveTV button on the product, which will instantly skip back to live TV from recorded programs.
LG Electronics marketing manager, Darren Goble, wouldn’t relay the cost involved in re-recording part of the 30-second advertisement’s voiceover, but he did express his relief that the entire ad didn’t need to be re-shot.
“They amended just the voiceover, without having to change any of the filming,” he told Current.com.au
“The amended it over a day. If they had have had to re-film the commercial, it would have been a nightmare.
“[Amending the advertisement was] a bit of an inconvenience for us, but fortunately our agency was able to come up with quite a good result. They managed to amend the ad without really changing the integrity of it.”
According to a report by the B&T Newsletter last week, LG Electronics spent $1 million on the entire marketing campaign, including magazine, outdoor and online ads, though TV represents more than 50 per cent of the total spend.
The revised advertisement yesterday ran at prime time on channels Seven, Nine and PayTV, but Goble wasn’t able to confirm if SBS would go with the original or amended version.
SBS includes considerably less paid advertising spots than the other commercial channels.
LG’s flat panels with built-in PVRs include 250GB hard disk drives, which provide up to 40 hours of high definition digital TV recording within the unit.
They allow users to delete advertisements in 30-second slots, while most other-branded PVRs only fast forward through the ads.