Posted on 03/09/2007 8:33:54 AM PST by Mark Felton
The green conundrum is affecting many products, not just TV, writes Paul McIntyre. AdvertisementAdvertisement
TEN NETWORK's programmers are baffled. With so much attention on climate change and consumer research indicating viewers were keenly interested in a 2½ hour feast of practical advice on how they might save the planet, Ten's ratings for the Cool Aid blockbuster on Sunday night were still a disaster.
Viewing numbers peaked at 618,000, compared with more than 1.6 million each for Grey's Anatomy and CSI on Seven and Nine respectively, and averaged just 464,000 people across the country.
"Truthfully, we're confused," says Ten's network head of programming, Beverley McGarvey. "They didn't come. It's not like they came to the show, sampled it and went away. They didn't come.
"We had study guides in schools, we had the full support of the print media, both editorially and with advertising, and an extensive [Ten Network] on-air campaign with a number of different creative treatments and different stances.
"We spent a fortune to get the audience there and it didn't work. We've talked about it quite a lot internally. We're disappointed."
Ten isn't alone. Despite the focus on climate change, the green conundrum is alive across myriad product categories, including toilet paper.
Australians spend $500 million a year on the stuff but just $20 million each year goes to brands using recycled paper. Since 2005 the category has been in decline, although it showed some promise in the latter part of last year.
The success story for Australian paper manufacturer ABC in the past 18 month has been its conventional brand Quilton stealing market share from big brands such as Sorbent and Kleenex, rather than improved sales of its recycled Naturale range.
"Recycled as a category is bugger all," says Joe Hancock, managing director of Gorilla Communications which developed the Quilton ad campaign Loves your Bum.
"Using recycled toilet paper is a no-brainer yet people are not prepared to make the sacrifice on their arse."
Toilet paper and TV shows are entirely different categories but both are facing the same challenge on the green front - how to get mass appeal and then turn a buck.
The latest research says it should be possible. Grey Global's annual Eye on Australia consumer trends study is about to release its findings for 2007.
On the environmental front, Australians say they're interested in environmental issues and behavioural change.
"For the first time this year people say they can make a difference when it comes to the environment," says Grey's managing director, Jane Emery. "Roughly 60 per cent say they can make a difference."
The biggest shock in this year's survey, however, is that 50 per cent of Australians now say they will need to start "dobbing each other in" for bad environmental behaviour such as wasting water resources. "That's a major change," says Emery.
But between all the pro-environment rhetoric from consumers, Grey also found disparities between sentiment and behaviour. Part of the Eye on Australia work includes an ethnographic study where researchers visit homes.
"People are quite passionate about it but when you wander around the house, all they've got is a bucket in the shower," says Emery. "They don't know what to do."
If Ten Network's experience means anything, the masses may not really want to.
Planet Ark's chairman and Australian frontman for Al Gore's hit documentary An Inconvenient Truth, John Dee, begs to differ.
"We are naive if we think everyone is going to drop their spending habits overnight," he says. "To get people to switch brands, you are striking at the heart of why people buy brands. "When people say they really care about the environment they really do care. What gets in the way of rhetoric and action is price and quality."
Dee argues education is critical, pointing to a mail-out of "how to save" leaflets to 5 million homes last week by companies such as Bunnings, Philips, Hills Industries, CSR's Bradford Insulation, Jackgreen.com.au and mailhouse Salmat.
"So much of the Government rhetoric which has gone out to combat climate change has been around costing jobs and damaging the economy that households don't realise many of the changes they can make can actually save money," says Dee.
"We had study guides in schools, we had the full support of the print media, both editorially and with advertising, and an extensive [Ten Network] on-air campaign with a number of different creative treatments and different stances."
This sounds like the same story as that leftist American radio network (whose name I forget) with Al franken. They got incredible free publicity, and of course it still bombed.
translated:
Network execs are still trying to figure out how best to profit off of global warming hysteria and promote their politics.
"We spent a fortune to get the audience there and it didn't work. We've talked about it quite a lot internally. We're disappointed."
That is because, while the Propaganda Experts succeed in the "Soft" areas of sociology, socialism, leftist activism, etc., there comes a time where even these reincarnations of past masters like Goebbels fail. There is a certain bullshit depth (Call it the Absurdity Coefficient) that cannnot be sold to the Great Unwashed beery 68th %ile, no matter the budget or effort.
LOL.
It would appear Aussie TV execs are as clueless as their American counterparts.
Recycled as a category is bugger all," says Joe Hancock, managing director of Gorilla Communications which developed the Quilton ad campaign Loves your Bum.
"Using recycled toilet paper is a no-brainer yet people are not prepared to make the sacrifice on their arse."
Toilet paper and TV shows are entirely different categories but both are facing the same challenge on the green front - how to get mass appeal and then turn a buck"
This has to be truly by inspiration. No one could possibly make this stuff up with a straight face by themselves.
*snort*
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