ABC TV Rejects KFC Ad as Subliminal, Cuts Off its Nose to Spite its Face. Doh!

You're ABC TV. A major TV network. You're losing ad dollars hand over fist to the Internet. Viewers are using TIVO to skip the commercials that are your lifeblood. So what kind of nutcase at your corporate offices came up with this remarkably dim reason to reject the new KFC ad that has run on all the other networks? The ad has made 70,000 people (so far) play the ad, often several times, then, go to the KFC micro-site for the offer, and download the coupon.

KFC's new commercial requires viewers to find a secret code they enter at the company's website to get a coupon for a new sandwich. You have to play the commercial at a slow speed on a DVD player to see the code. ABC says, therefore, it's a subliminal message and those are illegal. Oy! The commercial's strategy is aimed at countering the rise of digital recording technology that enables viewers to skip rapidly past commercials.

KFC says that its site traffic has increased by 60 percent since the ad started running. That's bad ABC, right? Posted by B.L. Ochman

Geez, that's completely idiotic, the whole idea in subliminal advertising that you *don't know* you're bombarded with a message.

You just need to look at the copycat network programming to see that they don't understand what's going on around them. The opportunity to make TV interactive is still being ignored by networks. I don't understand how they expect to survive.

You have to hand it to KFC for at least trying to understand the possibilities of new media. I don't think much of the creative, but the intent is right.
BL

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