TV Commercials and their Predictable Pattern for 2020
It’s the middle of November and we’ve already been saturated with TV commercials featuring retail companies’ favorite holiday — ummm, the holiday. You know, the one that features a decorated tree and that old, fat guy in a red suit and his flying reindeer.
Oh, you mean Christmas? The biggest holiday of the year that so many merchants love yet so many people will never say out loud for fear of offending people? Yeah, *that* holiday.
We’re not here today to talk about the double-sided face that we see almost everywhere in modern marketing. Instead, we’re just talking about the sheer amount of TV commercials that we observe throughout the year, and how predictable it is these days. And get ready because this next calendar year is going to be especially painful with TV marketing.
November 1st – December 23rd or 24th – CHRISTMAS
As I previously stated, we’re already in the Christmas marketing season. For many companies that started on November 1st, but a few commercials were already spotted back in the middle of October. Just when you think that you’ve had enough of the advertising by this point, it’s going to get worse at the end of next week. Once Thanksgiving arrives, it’s a jailbreak blitz, a full-court press to hit the advertising as hard as possible until Christmas Eve.
That’s one of the reasons why I enjoy Christmas Eve so much these days. Not only is it a day spent with family and friends, and there’s the maximum “holiday spirit” floating through the air, but it’s also like the advertisers finally sit back and take a break. The rush is over. There’s no more shopping for Christmas. The popular items are long gone, lots of inventory is low, and most stores close early so the workers can go home to their families.
I mean, it’s only like what, 53 days or so of heavy advertising getting you to let loose and spend more of your money than you originally planned, possibly going into some amount of debt in the process. That wasn’t so bad, was it? No, of course not!
Take a nice and relaxing nap on Christmas as 2020 is going to be one of the worst years in the history of annoying TV commercials.
December 26th – January 1st or 2nd – NEW YEARS SALES / PROMOTIONS
On December 26th, as people head back out to the stores to exchange gifts and start spending those gift cards from grandma and grandpa, we’ll see a change in advertising. Now it’ll be about deals for New Year’s Day which is only a week away. Granted, advertising for New Year’s Day isn’t as heavy as Christmas, but there’s still a noticeable change in theming. Naturally, you’ll see commercials for diets and gym memberships, some of the most popular resolutions that people keep making (and almost always break). Some trade schools also advertise at this time focusing on the whole new year, new career type of resolution.
January 1st – early April – TAXES
Starting right around January 1st you’ll start seeing lots of commercials advertising tax refunds and tax filing services. Some people like to file their taxes early (and get their refund that much sooner), while others will wait to the last minute for whatever reason. Regardless, we’ll still be bombarded with commercials until early April as the tax filing date rapidly approaches.
March – June – VACATIONS / ATTRACTIONS
Generally in early March or so you’ll see commercials advertising vacation destinations as well as popular tourist attractions. This is meant to cash in on those people planning trips for Spring Break as well as during the summer. Sometimes we’ll see tropical beach vacation commercials in early February as a way of enticing people to take a break from the cold, harsh winter and soak up the tropical climate.
While these commercials generally are not annoying, they tend to get old rather quickly as you probably saw extremely similar commercials for the same destinations last year. For us here in metro Atlanta, we tend to see a lot of commercials for the attractions in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, a cruise ship, our local Six Flags over Georgia amusement park, and then further destinations such as Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando. Generally it’s stuff within an easy day’s drive from your home.
late June – July 3rd – FOURTH OF JULY SALES
While this is a noticeable trend, this advertising period is basically a small blip on the radar simply because so many people are out and about during the summer. Usually these commercials are for fireworks, summertime food, and car dealerships. For us here in Georgia, it’s already in the second half of the summer break. As soon as we pass July 4th, the stores switch gears and put out the “back to school” merchandise. Yes, that really happens these days during the second week of July.
early July – early August – BACK TO SCHOOL SALES
Not long after the Fourth of July you’ll be back in the stores and stocking up on school supplies. It’ll be time to grab classroom materials and maybe some new electronics as well as new clothes. Here in Georgia many school districts begin classes right around the first day of August, though some actually start in July. The marketers know this and heavily advertise their sales in early July.
College students generally start classes a few weeks after everybody else. While the marketers don’t tend to focus so much on them, the stores don’t forget. Stores like Walmart and Target tend to have a wide variety of furniture and accessories for dorm rooms and apartments. Let’s also not forget that college freshmen generally overspend as they don’t really know what they’ll be needing for their residence as well as their classes.
Mid September – late October – HALLOWEEN CANDY & COSTUMES
After people get settled into their school routines, it’s not long until we start seeing commercials advertising everybody’s favorite spooky holiday – Halloween. The general focus here is on candy as well as costumes, as well as any promotional tie ins with any Halloween-themed movie in the theater. The good news is that these commercials generally aren’t that irritating. The bad news is that the overload of Christmas commercials is right around the corner on November 1st, completing the cycle of advertising.
OTHER TV ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS
Recently the theatrical production Wicked finished its tour here in Atlanta. Prior to that we had about three solid months of heavy advertising for the musical stage show. Those commercials filled the local broadcast channels, especially in the mornings and evenings for that target audience.
Recently we began seeing commercials for Shen Yun, a big dance production showcasing the history of China. For the past few years the show has been visiting Atlanta in the later part of winter, but for this upcoming tour they moved it up to the beginning of January. Like with Wicked and other expensive shows, we generally see about three months of heavy advertising. At least this time they made a new commercial, though we did spot two commercials that they’ve been using for years.
The general rule is still the same with these specialty shows. The big stage productions normally advertise heavily for about three months prior to the start of the show, even if they practically sell out every showing well ahead of time. That last part is still important. When people make a last minute decision and try to see the show and are unable to get good tickets, they’ll remember and act that much faster when the show returns. It’ll help guarantee sold out showings for next time. Smaller and cheaper shows (like Monster Jam or the traveling museum with animatronic dinosaurs) only advertise for a month, maybe two at the most.
2020 SPECIAL MARKETING
I hope you’re ready for excessive (and in many cases highly irritating and annoying) TV commercials this upcoming year. Oh, yes. It’s going to be quite a ride. You might want to practice muting your TV now, just streaming your favorite shows and skipping the commercials, or just outright turning it off.
2020 CENSUS
Every ten years the federal government conducts a census. It’s where government workers go from door-to-door asking how many people are living in each home. They may try to ask other questions as well, but the main goal is to simply count the number of people. That information is then used to determine each state’s representation in the House of Representatives. Of course, the information is also used locally to determine how to allocate state and county resources, redraw district maps, study growth and decline patterns, etc.
Anyway, this is a major event. There will be a ton of advertising for it starting this spring. Generally the census takes some time to complete, so you may continue to see advertising after it has already started.
2020 SUMMER OLYMPICS
The summer Olympic games are about eight months away from now. NBC paid a *lot* of money (we’re talking billions of dollars) for their rights to air it exclusively on their networks here in the U.S., and they’re going to start reminding you of it probably in the spring. And then reminding you even more at the start of the summer. And yet again as we approach the opening ceremony.
Personally, I don’t mind the advertisements for the Olympics. These are major sports events that occur once every two years (between the summer and winter games), and I’ve always found it interesting. I just don’t like it when they focus too much on the athletes’ back stories and the social justice garbage. Anyway, that’s NBC and they have control of the American broadcast, so they’ll continue showing the games as they see fit. Just be prepared to see an abundance of commercials as the summer games tend to be more popular than the winter Olympics. It’s pretty obvious when you analyze today’s society and spot the correlations with certain games and athletes.
2020 ELECTIONS – PRESIDENT, GOVERNORS, CONGRESS (HOUSE OF REPS. & SENATE) AND LOCAL ELECTIONS
This is election season going to be painful. It’s a presidential election along with the usual suspects (all of the House of Representatives, a third of the Senate, about a third of the state governors, and then your local state and county elections as well).
The elections of 2016 and 2018 showed us new levels in the sheer amount of TV commercials that candidates (through contributions from a wide variety of sources) will spend to get elected. Expect all of that and even more this time around. The gloves are off and it’s a no-holds-barred type of fight for political power —- at all levels. You’ll be seeing TV commercials and hearing radio advertisements for everything you can vote for on your local ballot.
It. Will. Be. Chaotic.
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TL;DR VERSION
Okay, so maybe you skimmed and reached the bottom of this article. Here are some highlights for your lazy ass.
Right now you’re already seeing massive advertising for Christmas sales and products. Right after the New Year you’ll see lots of commercials for tax specialists. There will be more annoying commercials this spring when they start informing people about the 2020 census. Then more advertising for the 2020 summer Olympics. During all of that and throughout the summer and fall you’ll be bombarded with an endless number of advertisements featuring politicians lying and throwing mud at each other.
Conclusion: 2020 is going to be a horrible year for irritating and annoying TV commercials.