In the storm of news coverage that broadcast immediately following the assassination attempt of former president Donald Trump, I made the observation that we were seeing an unusually large number of public service announcements (PSA)s. When it got to the point that entire commercial breaks were filled with back-to-back PSAs for the Girls Scouts, Doctors without Borders, and several organizations in support of cancer prevention and the prevention of drug use in youth, it became obvious that this trend wasn’t merely coincidence.
Legitimately, the broadcast airwaves have a social responsibility (to operate in the public interest) but no longer a legal one to dedicate a certain percentage of their advertising spots to support the PSAs of nonprofit orgs, but the decision to fill Sunday’s airwaves with unpaid ads was an effort of a different nature.
The same intent that makes brands want to sponsor or associate with the positive nature and feel-good messaging of a sporting or special event (like the Olympics) causes them to shy away from negative news.
While we all see how much of the nightly news is filled with drug commercials, and that local newscasts are backed by personal injury attorneys, nationally broadcast programming in prime-time slots carry a bigger price tag for advertising that is normally occupied by bigger brands. And while those brands may have been scheduled to run in the timeslots immediately following the assassination attempt, you can bet that there is either an actual or just assumed contractual clause requiring certain advertisers’ ads be pulled from airing during special coverage that does not align well with or reflect well on their brand.
Just think of it: do you want the happy shiny people in your consumer goods product commercial to appear adjacent to the bloodied imagery broadcast throughout this assassination attempt coverage?
Obviously not. And networks who depend on the advertising dollars of their biggest sponsors to survive know that and make the decision to protect their relationships by pulling the spots when appropriate and voila, we see PSAs.
Now, bad news isn’t always a deterrent for brands. Take note of the uptick in advertising spend from Generac and other emergency generator companies on The Weather Channel during tropical storm season and even more so during coverage of an actual hurricane.
The point here is that everyone is and needs to be intentional about the placement of their brand in proximity to appropriate messaging. It’s not enough to run in a timeslot or on a channel or at a venue where the audience makeup simply meets your profile. The content also matters. And in some instances, it matters a lot.
This post is courtesy of MMC Principal Jennifer Koon.