The death of the 30-second TV spot

Shakespeare said that a coward dies a thousand deaths. Well, the 30-second television commercial has died nearly as many. The 30-second spot eased the 60 off the stage in the 1960s. When the 15-second unit came on the scene in the 1980s, people prognosticated that the 30-second spot has not long for this world. With the advent of TiVo, again, forecasters began to write its obituary afresh.

"The ad industry is changing," said Jeff Binder, Senior Director for Connected Home Solutions with Motorola. "The 30-second mass spot is probably 10 years from being extinct."


Joseph Jaffe, in his book Life After the 30-second Spot, argues that brands would be wiser to redirect their advertising dollars into video games and elaborate word-of-mouth schemes.

But the more the TV commercial dies, the more that it seems to be reincarnated in a slightly different form. When we fast forward it on our DVRs, it rears its ugly head at the beginning of our online news stories and Hulu® re-broadcasts. It takes over the home page of our favorite website promoting some new movie, begging us to click it and put it out of its misery. It rings up our mobile devices and pesters us some more. It fills the widescreens of our cinemas and sporting events. The more stakes that advertising prognosticators pound into its heart, the more the 30-second television spot keeps coming back with Dracula-like regularity.

Let’s face it, there will always be a place for the TV spot. It’s not that the Web is killing off TV; it’s that the lines between computers, TVs, iPods and cell phones are blurring. That is why brand managers and CMOs need to be partnering with brand agencies that understand the power of an idea. Great advertising has never been about tactics. It has always been about powerful, integrated ideas. The 30-second spot has never been more than a vehicle for the idea. Just like the billboard, the e-blast, the Twitter alert, you name it. It is the idea that has the power.

So let’s not be too fast to cart the old boy off to the mortuary. Besides, if the world didn’t have TV commercials, when would we ever get a chance to go to the bathroom?