Top TV Advert Questions
We’ve taken a look at what questions people are searching for most when it comes to TV adverts, and have provided comprehensive answers to them for you. See below for the most commonly searched for TV advert questions and answers.
How to Stop Adverts on Catch-up TV?
Depending on the catch-up TV provider, there is sometimes the option to stop adverts on catch-up TV by paying a small monthly fee. For example, Now TV provides Now TV Boost, improving streaming quality, removing ads and other benefits. ITV Provides ITVHUB+, allowing you to catch up on your favourite shows without watching adverts in between. Most catch-up TV services now provide an option such as this, due to the growing demand of users who are willing to pay to have TV adverts removed.
It is worth noting here that whilst adblockers are available online, often free of charge, interfering with the publisher’s right to serve or restrict access to copyrighted content in a manner they approve of (access control) is illegal. For a lot of TV channels, TV advertising is their main source of income, so if everyone blocked TV adverts via an adblocker, it would be likely that fewer companies would want to invest in TV advertising, reducing that channel’s ability to afford to continue operating.
Why are TV Adverts so Woke?
In recent years, more and more TV advertising has adopted a more “woke” approach for their campaigns. Simply put, the term “woke” refers to someone who is aware of current social and political issues. Nowadays, many companies want to put forward their stance on certain top topic issues, such as climate change and discrimination. By doing this via television advertising, companies are able to show to a mass audience what their stance is, hopefully encouraging more loyalty from customers whilst pushing their viewpoints forward.
Sometimes however adverts that are seen as too political can be prevented from being shown on TV or banned. For example in 2018, an Iceland Christmas advert was banned for focusing on deforestation for the production of palm oil.
How Long are TV Adverts in the UK?
The average TV advert length is 30 seconds, but this doesn’t need to be the case. Companies can buy advertising slots for any length of time, provided that it meets the regulations for how long the commercial channel is allowed to show TV adverts throughout the day.
In the UK, the length of TV advert breaks on commercial TV channels needs to be an average of 7 minutes per hour, with a total limit of 12 minutes any hour of the day. These TV length regulations by Ofcom are however currently under review.
Do Charities Pay for TV Adverts?
Whilst some commercial TV channels can provide discounted or free TV advert slots for Charities, as a general rule Charities pay the same prices for TV adverts as other companies. Keen to reduce costs, it’s common for Charities to advertise on less competitive channels, and avoid peak times, as advertising on ITV between 6-7 for example is much more expensive than advertising on Gold at 9 am.
Why is TV Advertising Effective?
TV Advertising is effective mainly due to the mass audience you can advertise to at once. Viewers are likely to be staring at the TV screen, engaged in their favourite show when you advertise to them, meaning that you’re able to grab the viewer’s attention. TV advertising campaigns often run several times a day for long periods of time, allowing for repetition, making it difficult for the user not to see your TV advert at least once, even if they sometimes use the ad break to make a cup of coffee.
How to Complain about TV Adverts in the UK
To complain about a TV advert in the UK, you can visit the Advertising Standards Authority website here and make a complaint via their online form. Whilst an advert is unlikely to be banned from one complaint, if you strongly feel an advert is offensive or misrepresentative, it is likely to receive complaints in high numbers, leading to action.
See here for some of the most complained about TV adverts in the UK.
Why are TV Adverts so Loud?
TV advertisements are often perceived as loud because the intention is to grab the viewer’s attention. TV advertising slots can be very expensive, and the company behind the advert will want to prevent you from losing focus on the screen and watching their advertisement instead. There are regulations in place in the UK to prevent TV adverts from being excessively loud, and TV adverts shouldn’t be able to be louder than what’s been shown during the TV programme.
Subjective loudness plays a part here. If you’re watching a documentary for example, mainly involving people being interviewed, then an advert is shown in between using singing, explosions and shouted announcements will be perceived as much louder. There are conspiracy theories that your TV volume gets turned up during ad breaks, but there is little/no evidence to support this.
How to be on TV Adverts
Getting onto TV adverts is a similar process to becoming an actor or actress. Creating a portfolio showcasing your acting abilities, taking acting classes, and even areas such as getting professional headshots and contacting casting agencies are all steps recommended to getting the ability to audition for TV adverts. See here for further information.
How can I get my Dog on TV Adverts?
Getting your dog into TV adverts is arguably just as competitive as becoming a TV advert actor or actress yourself. In order to improve your chances of getting your dog featured on TV adverts, perhaps becoming the next Andrex or Dulux dog, we would recommend the following steps;
- Ensure your dog can handle stressful, busy, and unusual environments
- Train your dog in basic obedience
- Train your dog with advanced skills such as speaking on demand or crawling
- Create a portfolio to show to casting agencies, including photography and video clips
- Contact as many agencies as you can to improve your chances and hopefully get useful feedback along the way.
Take a look at some of the UK’s top dog adverts here.
Are TV adverts tailored to individuals?
Yes, nowadays, it is much more likely that your TV adverts are personalised to individuals. With catch-up TV online and features such as Sky Adsmart, you are much more likely to be shown adverts that are relevant to your browsing history, gender, location and age. With traditional TV advertising, shown on televisions without an internet connection, this is much less likely to happen, but you still may find adverts relevant to your local area that someone in a different part of the UK would not see.
Ask your TV advert questions below!
We hope you enjoyed reading what are the top questions about TV advertising, and our insights into their answers. If there are any questions you have that you’d like us to answer, then let us know in the comments.