flawed HDTV advertising

Remove all ads!

Something has been brought to my attention regarding the idiocy of the new "High Definition TV" (HDTV) that is being advertised all over the place. In a typical commercial, the manufacturer shows you a picture of an HDTV screen (with some movie playing on it) to show you how much better the picture is than on a regular TV. The problem here is, one would presume that to be able to see the better picture, you would already have to own an HDTV. If you have a regular TV, the picture won't look any better than what your picture looks like, because your television cannot resolve the better picture.

And, in case you are among the privleged few who DO own an HDTV, then the picture STILL doesn't look any better to you, because you already have the enchanced definition on your TV.

To take this rationale a step further, not all TV stations/TV shows are broadcast in HD. So, if such an advertisement appeared in a station not being broadcast in HD, would it even matter what kind of TV you had?

Am I right in this thinking or am I, as my name implies, an idiot?

 

Overall, yes I would say that the ads are stupid. In my opinion the ads would be better off giving information about the incremental costs of HDTV and suggesting some local electronics stores for the consumer to visit and look at an actual HDTV to see the difference in quality. Of course, I am also one of those people who feels that all ads are pointless unless they give you actual facts (prices, availability etc.).

I suppose that, if you look at it as a copy of a copy argument, if they filmed an HDTV and a normal TV side by side then even if they put it in a normal TV ad the normal quality picture of a HDTV image could look better than the normal quality picture of another normal quality image. You would not be seeing it in high definition but there could be a noticable difference if there is an observable loss of copy integrity on the normal picture of a normal image.

 

You're right, it is stupid. But when you think of it that way, all advertising is stupid. Take it from one who's chosen career is...well, advertising.

The purpose of advertising at all is to implant the idea into our heads - even if for just a moment - that product X is better than what we already have, and we need to go get product X to be happier. There's no way to convey the coolness of HDTV on a regular TV unless you have people standing in front of the HDTV drooling, or trying to touch it like morons because "it just looks so real!" It's kind of a "take our word for it" strategy of advertising because it's convincing power is limited by the medium that delivers that advertising: your current crappy TV.

It's for this reason that ads for audio equipment have to resort to more creative means to convey the quality of their sound. Remember that AIWA sound commerical where the hearse driver leading a funeral procession is rocking out to "Another One Bites the Dust?" Same thing.

Probably the most effective advertising for HDTV's are the Best Buy commercials where we see the hapless 30 something out of shape every-man walk in and receive the sales pitch from the charismatic and friendly Best Buy employee. The doofus stands there amazed and tries to make out with the TV (or something like that). They drive this message home so hard because they realize - as you do - that the best way to sell the virtues of the HDTV is to get people into the store to drool for themselves.

 

I tend to think the same thing as I watch those ads as well. Why make claims on TV, when you won't see any difference.

Finally have HDTV in my area, but spending $4000 on a form of entertainment that I never watch doesn't sound like a good idea.

 

Think about it. It has made its way into a message board by making no sense at all, therefore it was a sucessful commercial.

 

It has only been a success if it actually causes someone to purchase a HDTV who would not have done so if he/she had not seen the ad or read this discussion. As far as I can tell that has not been accomplished here.

Also, generally speaking, if I talk about an ad it is because it has annoyed me and I will generally feel inclined to boycott that product. If I am in a store looking at two roughly equal products my #1 deciding factor is always price. If the price is the same then my second deciding factor is which product I can remember seeing more ads for - that is the one that I will NOT buy.

 

From my understanding HDTV is mainly for people with Big Screen Tvs to make the picture clearer and less pixalated, so with that, the ads slightly make sense. But yea, the ads are moronic and just to give people a false since of a percieved "upper-class life."