And Now a Word From Our Sponsors …
June 16, 2009
Advertising.
The overwhelming majority of people claim to dislike it. A large percentage of people claim to outright detest it with every fiber of their being.
Commercials carry perhaps the most disdain of any other form of marketing.
While online and print advertising is also controversial, web and print advertising does not really bother me because I can consume it at my own pace. Web, newspaper, and magazine advertising is passive. I don’t have to wait for the the ad to finish in order to proceed. If the product interests me, I click or read it … if it doesn’t, I move on.
Despite the overwhelming negative perception of advertising, it spreads to more and more places every year, and people get used to it. From wraps on city buses, to signs on cabs, to gigantic 200′ high decals on hotels … people look at it, complain, then begrudgingly accept it. We have billboards that literally drive up and down Las Vegas Boulevard helping to increase already jammed traffic.
Moving Billboard on Las Vegas Boulevard
Monorail Wrap
Deuce Bus on The Strip
Ads on The Strip
Ad on The Strip
Ads on The Strip
Las Vegas Taxi Cab
Las Vegas Taxi Cab
Moving Billboard on Las Vegas Boulevard
We all know that people have to pay the bills somehow. It would not be possible for people to do things for free. The world is a gigantic economic system. For those who make no direct money in any other manner, advertising is necessary and it has served all forms of media very well for a century.
There are some limits, though.
A few days ago, I lost television service. I am not using hyperbole. Due to the U.S. conversion to Digital TV, I lost all access to television. I can’t get one single solitary channel even if I wanted to. Until Sunday, I owned a 13” TV with rabbit ears. I would flip it on in the morning to listen to the local news tell me about our perpetual 20% chance of rain (in the off-chance it jumped to 30%), and because I didn’t want to be caught leaving the house without first learning about the latest back-to-school fashion trends. Fashion and education are very important to me. Combined, they simply cannot be ignored. I didn’t watch solely for the weather and to make sure I had a hip wardrobe … the cooking segments with the local anchors literally had me on the edge of my seat.
“Will they burn the pasta? Oh dear god mother of moses, WILL THEY BURN THE PASTA???”
We all need an adrenaline rush to jumpstart our morning, and watching Monica Jackson (Fox 5 anchor) interview the latest celebrity resident about their upcoming show was like a methamphetamine injection straight into the median cubital vein.
Monica Jackson: So, Rosie, are you excited about your upcoming show at NYNY?
Roseanne Barr: Yes, I am.
Whoa! Just freaking … WHOA! I thought for sure she was going to say “No way, this entire city sucks donkey gonads and doing press on TV moring news is worse than servicing Tom Arnold before his monthly shower”, so the “Yes, I am” came completely out of left field.
You can see why I was glued to the set.
But there was a damper in all of this for me. Commercial overkill. They would tease minor segments for hours, and they kept promising to tell me how to get better gas mileage for my car (inflate the tires) “after the break”. Of course “the break” meant ads, ads, and more ads. Not only that, most of the news segments were ads. Rosie was pimping her show, stories about new restaurant openings were thinly veiled ads, etc. For the most part, TV is one gigantic advertisement.
This is why I don’t have cable television, will never get cable television, and because of this … will never again be able to watch broadcast TV in my own home. I have nothing against advertising, but I’m not going to pay to watch advertising.
Even though I am pointlessly raging against the machine in my own way, it is becoming readily apparent that I will never truly be able to escape commercials unless I move into a cave with Osama. Assuming he actually exists.
Video commercials are cropping up everywhere, and they are cropping up in places in which I am already paying for goods and services.
These days, when I am in the checkout line of the grocery store, there are commercials playing on a screen beside the belt. When I am putting gas into my vehicle, there is a commercial playing on a video screen beside the pump. Sometimes, I have to watch advertisements while riding in a Vegas cab.
The M resort currently plays CNN above their urinals, but I’ve no doubt that this is a precursor to house ads. Just try to avoid those. If you look left, you’re gay. If you look right, you’re gay. If you look down, you are playing with yourself. If you turn around, you piss all over someone. You really have no choice but to look straight ahead at the screen. This is prime ad space.
While almost everyone dislikes these ads, the question becomes … how can they be successful?
Two words: Captive Audience
You can’t change the channel when there is one screen and no remote.
As gaming tables are similar in their captivity of audience, casinos are beginning to realize the potential profits, and are starting to adopt the commercial model more and more across Las Vegas.
Video Screen on Gaming Table
Video Screen on Gaming Table
Video Screen on Gaming Table
Video Screen on Gaming Table
Video Screen on Gaming Table
Video Screen on Gaming Table
Video Screen on Gaming Table
Taking a cue from supermarkets and 7-11’s nationwide, casinos are installing commercials on more and more gambling tables.
While this seems innocuous enough, mark my words, five years from now, every table in Las Vegas will have one.
Following the frog in the pot theory, it will probably not just be house tables that get these commercials. It wouldn’t surprise me to sit at a poker table in 2015, only to find glass screens embedded in front of all ten spots on the table, or if that is not cost-effective, at least a screen in front of the dealer.
Sure, there are televisions in the poker room as it is, but the casinos aren’t getting paid for those TV spots. They are giving a captive audience to ESPN, FOX Sports, etc. It’s wasted revenue that the casino would like to have for itself. It’s only a matter of time until they install their own screens. Sure, they are already getting the rake, but they want more.
It also would not surprise me if Video Poker machines were programmed to show a commercial after every 50 hands, or for them to constantly have a small square visible in the top by the paytables which would show commercials. It certainly would not be the least bit difficult with modern technology. In a year or two, IGT (or whomever) could start programming them into every new machine.
I’m sure all of this sounds incredibly far-fetched, but 15 years ago, if you had told someone that the Luxor would someday sell all four sides of its iconic pyramid to the highest bidder, you would have been declared a loon. Hell, I may have declared you a loon (although I probably would have used a different term, such as crazy motherf … you get the idea).
Luxor Las Vegas
Luxor Las Vegas
Luxor Las Vegas
As Vegas feels the financial pinch more and more, and as the frogs get used to the lukewarm water, the sky is the limit with regards to just how much advertising we are going to ram down your collective throat in the years to come. I don’t like the proliferation of ads, and I especially don’t like the commercials cropping up directly on gaming tables. If they gave me something in return for it … say, 3:2 or stand on Soft 17, then I would probably find value in them. As it is, they offer absolutely zero to the gambler, and therefore I am not a fan.
However, it doesn’t matter what I think. It matters what the masses think.
How much uncompensated advertising will you take? Where will you draw the line before saying “no more”?
As Vegas 3.0 gets ready to launch its latest effort, it is a question you will be presented with more and more often.
If history is any indication, however, it’s already a foregone conclusion as to what that answer will be.
Ribbit.
Written by Disco Stu on June 16, 2009 at 11:41 am
I see enough screens in my daily life. That’s all I see at work and it is why I steadfastly refuse to bring my laptop on vacation in Las Vegas. Getting away from screens and pressing buttons is a mandatory part of my time away from home.
Screens on the tables is not a positive thing for me at all. Except for video poker, I do not want to see a screen or press a button until I get back home.
I did enjoy that first picture, though.
Written by Aaron on June 16, 2009 at 12:52 pm
If you already haven’t seen it, rent : Idiocracy – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/
Rex is absolutely right about where this will end up, and the movie takes it to a not-so-far-fetched one-step further (that’s a lot of “-”) – some of what is in that movie is actually happening now.
From the movie:
“I’m Secretary of State, brought to you by Carl’s Jr.”
Written by SPRUNT on June 16, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Not only do the table screens increase revenue because of the advertising, but they also work to distract the player from the game which will, in turn, increase revenue.
Written by keith on June 16, 2009 at 5:42 pm
those news teases are relentless – “a toy your child may be playing with right now may explode and kill him or her. Tune in at 11 when we reveal what toy that is”. How about you just say “the topsy turvey play table from fisher price may injure your child, get them away from it. here’s what can go wrong”, then tell us what the problem is, THEN go to your f*ing commercial breaks.Maybe push the ‘Paris Hilton crashed her Ferrari escaping from the papparazzi’ story until later, or not at all.
Opie and Anthony have been collecting these god awful news teases for years, with gems like “how a twist on the child predator laws could shut down religion”, and “the city (NYC) is proposing placing all the sex offenders into a 3 block radius. Find out after the break if it will be near where you live” to the downright silly: “can sneezing cause cancer?”
yes, these are real teases.
I wonder how long it will be before major companies offer to pay part/all of our bill/mortgage/monthly fee if we get tattooed with their advertising.
Written by ColinFromLasVegas on June 16, 2009 at 6:42 pm
SPRUNT hit the nail on the head about distraction. Casinos like that video screen commercial thing. And to carry it one step farther… Casinos will not allow a TV screen to be easily viewed by spectators at gaming tables. It’s always above or to the side. I would guess that it will never be in front of someone. They WANT you to look away. It’s subtle, but it’s there. The casinos want that money and they will do anything to acquire it.
“Oh! Look! We just bombed a cave in Afghanistan again with a predator drone! (Looks down…) What just happened?!?!?! How did I lose that hand!?!?!? It happened so fast!!!!”
Talking about screens above the urinals…. I wonder if the women’s room has those in the toilet stalls. Serious equal rights and all that…..
Written by dane glindeuce on June 17, 2009 at 5:03 am
It can work against the casino. That is, distractions take people’s focus off the gaming table thus taking longer to finish hands. I’ve been at BJ tables where the TV is right above your head so you have to lean back to watch it. At this particular time an NFL playoff game was on and a couple of douches (see pic of hat-on-backwards guy sitting at $1 Sahara BJ table for reference) were watching the game and not focusing on their BJ hands. They didn’t’ play them incorrectly, they just didn’t play them nearly as quickly as teh casino would have liked. Pit Boss eventually said, “Hey, it’s this game or that one.” They left.
Obviously, an NFL playoff game isn’t an ad but it’s a distraction form the game which is what an ad is as well.
I think the whole whoring out of buildings and vehicles and and and is soul-sucking. When I stop and think about it it pisses me off, really. And the proliferation, God almighty, the proliferation is endless. The ones that really make my ass tired are the friggin boxers whole plaster ads on their backs while I”m watching them on HBO!!! Yeah, PAY TV and I have to watch ads on Juan Carlos Garcia Venezuela Camacho Hernandez’s sweaty back.
I’m gettin pissed….
Written by SPRUNT on June 17, 2009 at 7:31 am
I don’t have a problem with the Flamingo having a giant Toni Braxton vag on their building, or the Rio having Penn and Teller standing tall on their building. Those are relevant to the casino themselves.
The Luxor having the Transformers covering the face of the pyramid is a bit much (though it is one of the better wraps they’ve had on it.) If a casino wants to put it’s headliner on the face if the building, it makes sense. You’re going to attract people to see the show (or, in the case of the current Flamingo, frighten people away) at your casino. Outside of that, it’s uncalled for.
The day will eventually be here when the whole side of the MGM will be covered with a giant “Kellog’s” and the Keebler elves. Even as much as I love those damn cookies, it will be a sad day.
Written by JC on June 17, 2009 at 7:53 am
Have different opinions on ads. Ads which inform you of things to benefit you or let you know about something new I’m all for. Clever creative ads which are entertaining also work too. As you mentioned, people need to get their product out there and sell it. If that product appeals to me I’m happy to see an ad about it.
The incessant TV ads you guys across the pond deal with huge and I don’t envy you one bit for that.
As for ads on the gaming tables, make them relevant and they’re fine with me.
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Written by Frank on June 17, 2009 at 12:53 pm
I always thought they had it backwards, rather than trying to get the tourists to look at ads for hookers on trucks, they should have ads for trucks on hookers. You’d get more eyeballs, and they’d be in a buying mood.
Written by Pi on June 17, 2009 at 2:13 pm
I don’t mind the wraps on the buildings when they are advertising their own shows either, especially when the building is not much to look at anyway. My fave so far was Flamingo’s Toni Braxton wrap. It’s always ok to plaster a hot chick all over your building. Those mobile billboards w/ the chicks are ok in my book too.
Written by Max on June 17, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Saw lots of these at Beau Rivage in MS. They had a small loop of the same stuff. I was very bored with the same David Letterman plug and Ghost Whisperer after the first 30 times. After that you start to tune it out and play power roulette.
Written by BigVinnie on June 17, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Dude, take some of your poker winnings and head down to the local Wal-Mart and buy yourself a digital to analog converter box for your TV. This small investment will rocket you into the 21st century.
And you may even find out “if they burned the pasta!” lol
Written by Ron on June 17, 2009 at 8:28 pm
The whole world has gone awry with advertising and hype, as well as the hype of unimportant news stories, whether it’s about the latest trend, the new gig, song, video, or TV show that some actor/actress/perfomer/musician or whatever and whoever is promoting him/her/itself for publicity purposes.
To me, unless the imformation is really important, if there’s a war going on, if there’s gonna be a oil shortage, if the stock market crashes, if there’s a revolt in Iran, if the EAS on my radio or TV goes off warning me of Severe Weather, AMBER Alert, etc., etc., etc., I could care less about the content if it was about cooking tips, already-scooped celebrity news and gossip, and hypothetical science studies (which, at times, sound very absurd, in my opinion.) And the same goes for advertising.
As for wraps, though they are common in Vegas, some of the places (if not most) should strip them off the buildings, and leave it to big marquee signs out in front and along the Strip. The Luxor is a one good primary example of how too much advertising can ruin the look and feel of resort building.
Even the ‘Transformers” Movie ad wrap, which replaced the Criss Angel wrap (yet a smaller one has been put onto the non-pyramid section of the building) doesn’t do the place justice; are they promoting a Movie based on the Hasbro product or are they (MGM) now changing thier minds of turning the place into an adult themed/Egyptian themed resort and going with a “kiddie” theme/Egyptian theme?
To me, personally, it’s kinda confusing.
And it doesn’t fit.
And as far as media being used as a tool for advertising, sometimes “word of mouth” can get boring as hell; case in point:
One night in the wee hours of the morning (I went to sleep at 8PM Vegas time/11PM Eastern time, and woke up around the 3AM hour Vegas time,) i went to take a long early morning walk along the Strip and the place was dead except for the lights, 7-11 stores, McDonald’s, the casinos, and a few hookers, panhandlers and so on. As i preceeded to walk along the NE-bound side of the Strip and passing by the Wynn (to get to the pedestrian bridge that was across Sands Av.e that was next to the then-Palazzo constuction site,) a woman had called out “Hi, are you going across the bridge?” At first, I thought it was a hooker, but it tuned out it was an older woman in a constuction hat and outfit dircting traffic onto the bridge connectiong the Fashion Show Mall and the Wynn, and not long after that, I changed my composure and finnaly had a small, non-personal chat, in which she was trying to directing me over the bridge, which she said (at first) they were doing maintenence on the bridge. After a little small talk, she noticed i wasn’t a jerk or douche, and she then told me that they closed that section of the bridge becasue they were doing filming of Ocean’s 13 in that area. Not long after that, I, with some assurance, said to the woman (and speaking from the mind and the gut:,) I said: ” Aw, that’s allright, I don’t care. If Brat Pitt, Geoerge Clooney, Jerry Weintraub or whoever want to film I”Ocean’s-a-Million,” or whatever it’s called, that’s fine,..I’m just a bum walking down the Strip trying to get to the other side” and not long after, laughed from the gut, and realized I couldn’t believe what I just said; woman was nice about it though and thanked her for the info, walked across the bridge towards the Fashion Show and went towards past the T.I., Mirage, a few whitsling hotties, Caesars, and on down to NYNY and MGM.
I laughed not because I wanted to berate the woman’s comment or hated Ocean’s 11 remakes and sequels (first one that was done by the Rat Pack in 1960 was good enough,) but the fact that Hollywood is in Vegas doing a shoot for a movie that’s been overdone a million times in the last six years needed a good wake up call to a good dose of reality. And who really care about George Clooney, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt or whoever is filming here: FORGET IT!! THEY DON’T GIVE A F**K ! And neither does Clooney, Pitt, or anyone else for that matter, unless you’re TMZ, Norm Clarke or Robin Leach.
And since I was at Ground Zero in terms of Hollywood Celeb hangouts, such as the Las Vegas Strip, it’s nothing new to me. It’s old news, it’s hype and it gets boring.
And the same goes with advertising, including wraps on buildings.
Nuff Said.