Air America: Corporate Poison!
I've posted before on Air America's apparent lack of commercial sales. Here, another listener sheds some light:
During a day of torture by radio, I heard ads for Hewlett-Packard, Greyhound and, especially, General Motors. I asked GM why it appeared in such shows.Ryndee Carney, GM's manager of marketing communications, said the ads were wrongly picked up from an earlier deal with WLIB. She said the station was ordered to "cease and desist" yesterday, and added: "GM will not advertise on any Air America affiliates."
It's a good article, albeit nothing new for Boviosity readers.
I heard the Greyhound ad yesterday, and also an ad for some kind of weight-loss nostrum. I've also heard the HP ads at various times. My thought was that HP was targeting the angry upscale liberal computer geek market, which is probably not a bad idea but probably not as big a niche as one might think.
(Link via the indispensable Mrs. G)
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Turns out AA's target market is even narrower: sneezy liberal computer geeks angry about the cost of insurance for their reliable Japanese cars!
Add non-corporate sponsors Warner-Lambert (Benadryl), GEICO and Toyota to the list. But that was just during one half hour of afternoon drive time, so it may not be representative.
Posted by: Joe Martin | May 13, 2004 07:36 AM
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Cool, thanks for the data points. They're just as valid as mine, although I'm sure you're glued to the broadcast a lot more than I am. ;)
Consider yourself deputized. I'll report any upticks in advert space you make me aware of. Just curious, what show were you listening to? I suspect Franken and Garofalo sell more space than the shows I'm exposed to, since they're on more stations.
Posted by: Brian Jones | May 13, 2004 09:57 AM
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I was listening to yer buddy Ed Schultz yesterday, probably due to some kind of hypnosis. I'm still hoping that one day XM will make some adjustments the America Left channel (insofar that it differs from Air America itself) and expand the Randi Rhodes time.
"Glued" overstates it, especially since the talk radio thing bugs. I include A/L as I hop from one XM music channel to another, and sometimes nothing musical strikes me. But neither Ed nor Sedition are as appealing as O'Franken. Garafolo is too heavy too close to my bedtime.
FYI - some new shakeups at AA to be aware of, as they continue to figure out the best way to market liberal talk: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4964751/
Posted by: Joe Martin | May 13, 2004 12:10 PM