With the announcement of TV3 killing off Newshub, it makes transparent the sad fact that we have all known for some time, namely that advertising ruins everything. Just as much as that a lack of advertising also ruins everything. Advertising is the monster that keeps the western capitalist system alive, and it is also the thing that western capitalist systems are currently dying of an overdose of. Nobody ever really WANTS to see advertising, and yet our entire lives are predicated around the advertising industry making sure of us seeing enough advertising space, enough renting the back of our eyeballs that we might remember the latest sale, the latest gadget or widget, the latest hyaluronic cream, or the latest hydraulic coupling for our tractor, that we might go out and buy one.
New Zealand has an appallingly high proportion of our TV devoted to adverts – far higher than the UK – so that British TV programs cut to fit into a one hour TV time slot need to be further cut so that we can still get our 15-20 minutes of advertising into the same hour. While that doesn’t matter with such high class drama as Home and Away, Close to Home, or whatever newfangled soap you are watching, it does play havoc if you try and watch something like a period drama. The British play a different game – or used to – that you want to try and make the advert appealing, so that consumers will sit and voluntarily watch the advert. Memorable adverts such as Hamlet’s cigars. I’ve never smoked a cigar in my life, but the adverts were such beautifully told vignettes of life that it made me stop and watch, every time. Cadbury’s drum-playing gorilla was another British masterpiece of advertising brilliance, that did have an effect on me – I almost reverted back to Cadbury and stopped buying Whittakers just because of the beauty of that advert.
New Zealand adverts operate on a different wavelength, one that I find rather abhorrent. n Aotearoa, we operate on the same premise as the Americans and the Mexicans, namely berating you endlessly again and again and again and again and again, that Briscoes has a sale on right now that will never be repeated, that Burger King / McDonalds / KFC / Karls Junior has some special combination of dead meat, fried potato and an overdose of salty sauce that you simply MUST eat this week, today, right now, this instant. Even when we know that it will help to kill us early, our brains are so saturated with that same fatty burger sauce that thousands of Kiwis go out and buy, buy, buy another one. It is hard to resist. Children’s advertising is even worse, and even more blatant. Buy THIS piece of highly coloured plastic and Mummy and Daddy will stop fighting and everything will be alright again. Make sure it has all the spangles and the extra unicorn horn. Buy NOW.
So why is Discovery ditching NewsHub? My preferred news station of choice? It will all be coming down to advertising of course – that TVNZ has got the preferred programmes and therefore got more eyeballs watching the adverts. As I said in a maudlin post at the start of the year, the old people watch The Chase every night, and so they stay on and watch the TV One News, and after that, any hangers-on will still be watching that nice Hilary Barry and that odd man Jeremy Wells. But it is the follow through from the Chase to One News that captures all the eyeballs. By comparison, no one watches TV3 NewsHub, because no one is watching whatever it is that comes before the Three news. Who knows what it is? No one cares. No one watches it.
And yet, and yet…. Pop will eat itself, and TV advertising also consumes its own corpse. The problem is, of course, that having geriatrics watching One News may consume the eyeballs of the elderly, but they are not following through by buying products. No longer fit enough to jog down to the store to purchase a whatsit or a widget, those eyeballs are too old and too non-consumerist. Too jaded. They’ve seen enough – they’ve seen it all. They might order another bulk box of Whiskas, but they don’t know how to do it online, and online shopping is where it is at these days, with bricks and mortar stores going out of business faster than the roll-over of a Briscoes sale. Have you noticed how all your favourite quirky indie businesses are going out of business? If they are not advertising, they are on their way out. Hashigo Zake is closing next week, because despite being the best beer craft bar in Wellington, it does not advertise and therefore it does not exist in the minds of most. Even the Warehouse, where everybody gets a bargain, had to sell off its Torpedo 7 brand last week – for ONE DOLLAR !!! That has to be the bargain of the century, given that everything within the store cost at least TWO dollars or more. The corporate masters of the Universe are so keen to sell off non-performing businesses that they are simply giving them away.
I’m one of those people that advertisers hate, because I never buy anything that is advertised, if I don’t like the advert. I’m a consumer who will not consume what they tell me to consume. I hated the Colgate adverts of the 1980s so much that I have never bought Colgate products since. Look Meessus March, eet DOES get een.” says the small Aussie boy to the teacher as she soaks some chalk in a handily placed glass of coloured water. It was awful. Instead, I would buy MacLeans toothpaste because of the lithe young beauty who did not shout angrily at me in an ugly Aussie accent, but instead simply smiled at me and asked in a melodic voice, “Are your MacLeans showing?”. But try and buy MacLeans at the supermarket these days – you’ll have to search it out, because Colgate has all the advertising and so they get the eye-level shelves at New World.
TV Three gets the second tier adverts, the less profitable brands, despite the actual news being just as good or actually better. TV One gets adverts for tractors and Central Region Field Days because farmers are watching and farmers have money to spend. I usually leap for the remote and turn off the sound, and then turn away. The revolution may be televised, but I will not watch the advert for it.
The ironic thing is that the generation that the advertisers really want to get hold of, the 18-24 year olds and the 25-35 year olds, don’t watch TV at all, because there is too much advertising on it. Neither do they read a newspaper, so all those adverts from Harvey Norman, which have been wrapping the outside of the Dominion Post for the last 2-3 years, are a complete waste of time and space and money. Their eyeballs, of course, are on their phones. Their fingers are fast and their digital trail is solid, buying widgets online as soon as they can tap out an order. Google and Meta track them and send them more adverts, aimed directly between the eyes.
What? The Japanese Beer Bar is closing? Can’t the WCC slip them thirty-two million bucks or so to stay open?
Tory’s off the beers now. Missed their chance…
The Council owns the Embassy, so the Reading deal is not the first time it has spent money on cinemas. Except the Embassy deal (the council took over the building after a Trust had restored and strengthened it) was a good one. And thinking of theatres, the WCC also owns the St James and the Opera House. (A long story, how the council came to control the city’s entertainment venues.)
The Council under-writ both the Embassy Trust and the St James Trust, ( which also owned/ the opera house) so they have basically been the owners incognito since those trusts bought the buildings,
The Council backed the two trusts after fears the buildings, ( all ‘heritage”) could be demolished in the last 80s/90s demolition wave (ironically set off by the last set of earthquake rules and a former mayor)
In regard to Readings’ monolithic clad leaky house, with absolutely no heritage value – Readings Interational have carefully boxed in the council and council have now foolishly publicly stated that the site needs to be improved- and as the owner Reading are happy sitting in the box seat and will screw this council handsomely,
Posit, – They sell the land based on some current valuation (with a earthquake prone building with a demolished car park) – estimated at $32 million,
Council then give this money back to Readings to “refurbish” the building, who then buy it back in 10 years, at the original price ( despite any uplift in its valuation due to it actually having people through the door)
Also: Readings as a US corp are gonna want car parks with their cinema complex, – but the council appear to have some veto over the design of the building and will be vehemently oppose any car parking other than for cargo E-bikes along with showers for long distance walkers and bus travellers) ,
what happens when the differences become intractable… ???
There are too many ‘whatifs’ to this Reading deal. With it’s parcel size and multiple frontages this site has the rare potential to be a fully contained retail/entertainment complex with hotels and a residential above. But, who has the cojones to build it? Is it time to call back the brash Miami Vice-esque Chase Corp?
Thankfully Chase Corp are all long dead – I would not wish that deathly era on anyone. Awful, awful people. Terrible buildings. God-awful developers without an ounce of human decency. Long may they rot in hell.
But yes, you are right that they should completely redevelop the site – although I’m not sure that a hotel or residential would be able to stand the noise from the streets nearby. Police and sirens and ambulances most nights. Would need a very good architect and developer to tackle that. Although, put in something high-class and perhaps it would drag the rest of Courtenay uphill with it?
Absolutely. Good riddance to Chase Corp. and their cheap suits. I do think that the fundamentals of their initial Wakefield Center proposal does deserve some consideration. Mid-range hotel on the Wakefield St. side opposite the Convention Center makes sense. Triple glaze if necessary. An internal street to connect directly to Courtney place. Yes, I know it’s sounding like a mall but again with Wellington’s less than Mediterranean climate it kind of makes sense and if done right, would be popular. Residential and a supermarket would have been great but Woolworths pulled out. Pity they couldn’t have done a land swap with New World. That site is so under developed.
As far as advertising. Sadly, we’re taking our cues from the US. News will morph into infotainment with talk back hosts given their own TV shows to keep the older generations happy.
YTC – not sure that is at all likely to happen. Do we currently have any TV shows from TalkBack shows? Does Mike Hosking have his own TV show ? (Although I’m sure he would like that). Does Willie Jackson still do talk back? We last tried that sort of thing with Paul Holmes and it was a bit wet and pathetic even back then. I personally don’t think there is anyone in NZ capable of holding the audience attention long enough to have a show, either early evening or late night.
Sorry, it was said a little tongue in cheek. However, if you wind back 20-25 years and see where we are today. Fleets of SUVs, tract housing, growing obesity. We’re Americanising faster than we probably care to admit.
That’s an interesting thought – assessing TV product in terms of its advertising and product placement. Is it holistic?
Its holistic to me. I refuse to buy products form people who have bad, “shouty” adverts – so I am glad that Godferrys Vacuum Cleaners went bust – they deserved to fail – their adverts were terrible.
Harvey Norman – their insistent advertising wins no plaudits from me. I will not buy their crap.
Burger King – advertising with that idiot “comedian” their products deserve to fail.
Briscoes incredibly annoying woman and their eternal sales on everyday – no thanks.
I am a moral person. I will not buy products with immoral adverts…
If you haven’t already read it, you might like to read “Ogilvy on Advertising” by David Ogilvy. It’s aged quite well in spite of it’s age.
It annoys me that the Minister told media they need to “innovate”, while at the same time the cancer-peddlers are getting a free ride with the smoke-free repeal no one (apparently) asked for.
Big Tobacco lobbyists asked for it, probably through WInnie.
Maybe I’m being naïve, but I thought politicians/The Government were supposed to give a shit about the people they serve?
(Depends who they are serving, I guess. It’s pretty laid bare by their policy priorities though…)
Well, at a guess, young Maori did not vote for National, ACT or NZ First, so therefore they are free to make polices that ignore them. Although, perhaps I am wrong? Maybe young Maori (still enjoying a ciggie around the back of the bikesheds) were the ones to vote for the continuation of tobacco, so they can continue to smoke it? Cos it is discriminating against their right to destroy their own lungs and no one should be allowed to stop them doing that.
The Minister for Media that is more clueless than Clueless? The Melissa Lee who said that maybe people could watch news on Sky, even though Sky gets all their news from TV3 at present? She is more useless than most – still finding her feet, obviously, but really, these are serious issues – they need a serious Mincer.
You are completely wrong in your post – far from it being a horrible chore, Advertising is the Saviour of Everything. Think back – when Covid struck, what saved the newspapers? What saved the magazines? Who saved the radio and TV ? It was advertising. Even now, to this very day, we have Harvey Norman to thank for the survival of the Dominion Post. Carefully wrapping our news as carefully as it wraps out fish and chips, the adverts for such retail behemoths as Harvey Norman are what is keeping out society afloat. Be thank ful fo rhtem
Hmmm, interesting, and leads me to explore the past a little more fully. Back in the day – before I was born and I suspect, before even you as well, newspapers such as The Times (UK) featured almost exclusively Adverts on the front – for many years. There was a huge shock one day when they changed and had put the adverts inside, and in a weird turn of events, put actual News on the front of the newspaper. Others followed. Of course, the adverts in those days were not Harvey Norman wrap-arounds, but it was the small personal adverts – lost cat, trousers taken in, rooms to let etc. Quite fascinating, really, but you can’t tell what the news is, until you have physically bought a copy of the paper. So, we are pretty much back to the beginning, it seems.
The problem today though, is that a system based upon Advertising paying for all our bills, only works when advertising actually DOES pay our bills. Newspapers were, in effect, just a medium via which an advertiser could rent our eyeballs for a few minutes, and with the current situation where Facebook and Google refuse to pay for the news gathering that they steal – and meantime they steal all the money from the advertisers and keep it for themselves. They are the most corrupt news organisations on the planet – but you can’t blame them. They are taking full advantage of the idiots that run things like Stuff, like TVNZ, and of course, TV Three and NewsHub. By removing the advertising income from TV3 and TVNZ (only 10% of advertising is spent on TV now – hardly any on Newspapers) – most of the budget goes online, eg Mr Zukkerberg and Mr Brin / Mr Page / Mr Musk. No wonder that Musk and Zukks are the wealthiest men on the planet. Your eyeballs are funding them.
If FB and Google are to be taxed to fund Media, then there is an equal case that places like Trade Me should also be included.
Back in the day, you used to pay money to stick classified ads in papers to find a flatmate, sell a bike or rent a house… all of this vanished when on line market places arrived in the early 2000s,
The media didn’t make a huge fuss as they still had plenty of other advertisers happy to fork out to tell readers about “4 tins of peaches for $5” or the new model Mitsubishi Lancer.
Now that has gone too.
News was not being generated as an altruistic process, It was to attract readers to the Papers to sell advertising,
People are now happy to get their news from somewhere else, pouring public money (whether taxed from online behemoths or not) is unlikely to change readers habits…
The days of newspapers and daily news may have simply run its course,