Making an advertisement for television often costs more than a movie. For example, a two-hour movie
costs $6 million to make. A TV commercial (商业广告) can cost more than $6,000 a second. And that does
not include cost of paying for air time (电视节目开始的时间). Which is more valuable, the program or the
ad? In terms of money-and making money is what television is all about, the commercial is by far the more
important.
Research, market testing, talent, time and money-all come together to make us want to buy a product. No
matter how bad we think a commercial is, it works. The sales of Charm went up once the ads began. TV
commercials actually buy their way into our head. We, in turn, buy the product.
And the ads work because so much time and attention are given to them. Here are some rules of commercial
ad making. If you want to get the lower-middle-class buyer, make sure the announcer has a tough, manly
voice. Put some people in the ad who work with their hands. If you want to sell to upper-class audience (观
众), make sure that the house, the furniture, and the hair style are the types that the group identifies (识别)
with. If you want the buyer to feel superior (胜过) to the character selling the product, then make that person
so sfupid or silly that everyone will feel great about himself or herself.
We laugh at commercials. We don't think we pay that much attention to them. But facts show we are
kidding ourselves. The making of a commercial that costs so much money is not kid stuff. It's big, big
business. And it's telling us what to think, what we need, and what to buy. To put it simply, the TV
commercial is a form of brainwashing (洗脑).