Tsion Aklilu Ethiopian electronic media has been the target of countless commentaries and criticism. As the sole provider, ETV is especially exposed to public scrutiny. This week’s Society raises the issue of the quality of the commercials aired on the national channel and includes readers’ views.
Do TV
commercials negatively
influence child
behavior?
“The best thing about commercials on ETV is the hunky guys and gorgeous women”
Hana, nurse
“I think the commercials are great. It’s just that since we have only one television station, they tend to have too many commercials within a short period.”
Amlake Selam, tailor
“Frankly, I am sick and tired of watching the same few dozen people doing all the commercials on ETV. There is no originality and the technical quality is very poor.”
Amare
“I feel the commercials on ETV are very poorly made. However, advertising is not yet a developed industry in Ethiopia and it will take some time to come up to international standards.”
GG
“ETV has not identified its audience. A lot of junk is on TV at any time. We switch it on and children may watch bad stuff and be influenced.”
Fikerte, Bole
“TV commercials are more powerful than any other topics that are transmitted on TV because they are better made and have animation. Kids enjoy such things.”
Mintu,Arat kilo
“I don’t think we can protect children from the effects of television. After all this is a video generation so if not from TV commercials, the young can be influenced by many form of advertising.”
Belachew, teacher
“Sure, kids will be influenced as they retain every thing they see or hear. Thankfully cigarette advertisement is banned.”
Aklilu, Gofasefer
Interest resistant
I have been wracking my brains silly for days trying to identify what I like on Ethiopian Television and you know what?... I am still thinking!
Let’s see now; it can’t be the news because the horror movie soundtrack gives me the shivers. Ethiopian Idol? Please!? How about 120? (Sorry I take that back…is it still on though?) Okay, I give up. There is nothing to watch on ETV except…I got it! It’s the commercials! Whew! After a whole week of torture watching ETV, I hit upon the dozens of commercials which I feel have considerable value as how not to go about it. Not to say there aren’t any good ones because a few do come to mind but before that lets review what makes for a bad commercial. The choice of music or jingle is a readily identified flaw as is the arbitrary manner of dialog. Then comes the faintly disguised attack on the nearest competitor, followed by atrocious overacting accompanied by uninspired camera work.
It makes you wonder sometimes, how it is that all the dozens of private cinematography schools and years of practical experience have not produced competent artists and promoters with vision. The very least they could have done is to raise their ‘art’ by simply adapting Indian advertising techniques we view with so much pleasure on the BBC and other channels.
Foreign produced commercials all tend to be short-usually less than 30 seconds. They also contain a minimum of dialog. Some don’t even use a single word. This shows that the idea behind any commercial must be good enough to capture the imagination. We live in a very connected world in which even the armatuer can make a movie with a 200 dollar digital camera. Sadly though, most of the commercials we are subjected to don’t meet the standards of armatuer hobbyists, let alone that of national television with all the resources available to them.
Change is inevitable and there will surely be better times ahead for electronic forms of advertising. However, we won’t hold our breath. We have been disappointed before. In the final analysis, ETV is not the primary culprit but the ‘producers’ and ‘artists’ who need a good dose of inspiration.
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