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One Second Ads Hoping To Grab Your Eyes 105

Posted by Zonk from the newspeak-for-marketing dept.
otis wildflower writes "C|NET reports that GE will be airing a new advertising campaign called 'One Second Theatre'." From the article: "'GE One Second Theater,' as the campaign is being called, presents a humorous peek behind the scenes at recent General Electric commercials produced by BBDO. The campaign is intended specifically for new media like digital video recorders, which can be used to watch expanded versions of the spots, and News Corp.'s MySpace social-networking service, where visitors can read a mock profile of Elli, the elephant star of one of the commercials. The spots will also be accessible on MP3 players, through podcasts presented as if they were recorded by Elli and other characters from the spots, and on a microsite offering an online version of the campaign. The multimillion-dollar campaign, scheduled to begin Friday, is the most recent effort by GE to explore media beyond conventional commercials and print advertisements."
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One Second Ads Hoping To Grab Your Eyes More

One Second Ads Hoping To Grab Your Eyes

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  • If you got the money, I got the time... (Score:5, Funny)

    by __aaclcg7560 ( 824291 ) on Saturday May 06, 2006 @01:26AM (#15275538)
    Show me the money and I might pay attention to a one second ad. Unfortunately, my attention span last only a half-second.

  • Ah, here at last. (Score:5, Informative)

    by pair-a-noyd ( 594371 ) on Saturday May 06, 2006 @01:26AM (#15275539)
    Blipverts.
  • Is anyone else reminded of the 'phallic flash' at the end of Fight Club? Just think... drop a GE logo on there and BAM!

    Instant advertising greatness.
    • The Late Show (Letterman) does this type of thing when they do skits like, 'Will It Float?'

      Dave will ask what we are playing for and for a second they will flash a picture of the item. The announcer gets really into saying the name, like "Black and Decker can opener", but they only show the item for a second. I've actually been wondering for a while if they were being paid for some of their spots.

  • ASCII Version (Score:5, Funny)

    by Tablizer ( 95088 ) on Saturday May 06, 2006 @01:29AM (#15275548) Journal
    For those of you using a text-based browser, here is the ASCII version:

        (.)(.)


    Just close your browser really fast to get the speed affect.

    • Re:ASCII Version (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      It's 'effect'.
      • It's 'effect'.
        I have one suggestion to stop the ongoing affect/effect war on ./. Just wondering how it will look in the rest of the world:

        Æffect, æffect
        • Nah... much easier for someone to check Google Define when they aren't sure... unless they're too lazy or in a hurry...
        • Somewhat off-topic, but way back in high school German class, I had a trick of writing my cursive letters n/m/r in such a way that it was hard to tell which one I meant. Very handy when you're not entirely sure which article to use with a noun: "der", "den" or "dem" (didn't help as much with "des" or "die"). Since I was doing very well in the class, and my handwriting was pretty bad anyway, the teacher typically just assumed I had gotten it right. (And I usually did know the right one, but I'm sure I pic

  • This is much too confusing. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 06, 2006 @01:29AM (#15275549)
    The advertisements themselves are one second long, yet the complicated explanation that is necessary to understand what is happening in the commercials takes thirty seconds to read. What the fuck?

    Hey, anybody remember back when the point of commercials was to inform you about and convince you to buy a product, and the commercials actually told you what that product was?

  • Lawyers (Score:4, Funny)

    by Mike Hicks ( 244 ) * <hick0088@tc.umn.edu> on Saturday May 06, 2006 @01:37AM (#15275575) Homepage Journal
    A friend of mine told me about something similar to this many years ago where a lawyer was experimenting with the idea of a one-second commercial. Apparently the guy in the ad just yelled "HURT?!?" and flashed his phone number.

    If there's any American industry that we'd like to see outsourced....
    • How do you read and memorise a phone number in one second?

      • Re:Lawyers (Score:3, Funny)

        by Who235 ( 959706 )
        I don't know -- how do you memorize the rack on the girl from the coffee shop in 1/30th of a second to add to the spank bank?
      • Dunno, but hearing a website once could be effective, as it's a name rather than ten numbers. Plus you could actually hear it in one second, whereas you probably couldn't read a whole phone number that quickly. The problem is that most people in this country are too stupid to spell stuff right, so you'd have to domain squat your own site.
      • If you have a nice easy to remember number then it's completely possible to remember it in one second. Plus if you are the first ad in the slot then it's likely that tivo users will not only see your whole ad but rewind it to find out what the hell you are doing.

        Of course it only works for the first couple of people to try it, then it becomes old and will be ignored.
    • I recall the "Master" lock company had an ad years ago which was only a couple seconds long, and showed a lock getting shot by a bullet, and still staying closed. Very effective.
  • Boy, it'll be fun listening to a veritable cacophoney of blurps for a thousand products all in the space of one second before I can even comprehend what products they are, what company offers them, and how I can purchase one!
  • WTF are you doing? How about concentrating on the NBC brand, which is losing ratings (and dump MSNBC for god sakes). Continue to invest in healthcare and insurance which will continue to grow while high oil prices will put a hold on growth in the aircraft and plastics sectors. And pump some more money into congre$$ to get some new nuke plants with your new reactors approved. I'm sick of my shares hovering between 30-38 for the last 2 and a half years. I dont see to many myspace users buying appliances

  • Ouch! (Score:3, Funny)

    by ozmanjusri ( 601766 ) <aussie_bob@hoMOSCOWtmail.com minus city> on Saturday May 06, 2006 @01:53AM (#15275616) Journal
    One Second Ads Hoping To Grab Your Eyes

    That sounds painful. "My eyes...the goggles do nothing!"

  • Image Repair (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Detritus ( 11846 ) on Saturday May 06, 2006 @01:55AM (#15275617) Homepage
    Right, GE, the corporation that paved the way for modern management methods like gutting research, "encouraging" suppliers to cut costs by moving production out of the USA, obscene pay for corporate executives, treating employees as liabilities, and institutionalizing layoffs.

    They are just a cute and fuzzy corporation that wants to be your pal.

    I think I need to puke.

  • Who's thinkin blipverts?

    Max Headroom: We're getting there.

    • Re:Blipverts? (Score:4, Informative)

      by speculatrix ( 678524 ) on Saturday May 06, 2006 @02:52AM (#15275762)
      I too immediately thought "Max Headroom" when I read the summary... you can still find the original programs on various torrent sites!

      For the uninitiated, the pilot episode of Max Headroom [maxheadroom.com] told how new high-speed advertisements were overloading people's brains. Max was, well, kind of a cyborg, when a reporter suffering a terrible accident was recreated in a computer.

      For the full spoiler, read TV Museum [museum.tv]

    • Who's thinkin blipverts?


      Everyone. And if the illegal trade in body parts in the US is as big as made out, we already have the rest of the movie's elements.

    • You know,that was EXACTLY the thought i had. Look for an increase in cranial exposions soon.

    • That was /exactly/ the first thing that popped into my head when I scrolled past this and my sub concious registered it.

      I was thinking what if they were to slow down the commercial feed so that if you're fast forwarding it that it would play at normal speed ...

      I'm really stretching on that but I'm glad some people remember max headroom.

  • Anti-Anti-Advertising Technique? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Garrett Fox ( 970174 ) on Saturday May 06, 2006 @02:12AM (#15275651) Homepage
    I think part of the reason for this is Tivo et. al, and Web-based shows. Each format allows people some means of skipping over ads, right? If the ads are extremely short, maybe people will be more willing to sit through them. Or at least they'll be unable to get up and grab a beer during the commercial break, unless there are thirty ads in a row... Reminds me of that WarioWare game, except that the theme every time is "Buy!"
  • A 1 second ad in and of itself might be easily missed or easily dismissed. If OTOH a cluster of 1 second ads were shotgunned with the intent of broadly hitting a target audiance that shared an economic niche then the idea might be effective.

    For example take the idea of the 80's yuppie, pixelate a cluster of 1 second ads that incorporate automobiles, IKEA, upscale dinning, wines etc. etc. and you might sell by association.

    Just my loose change

  • Attention Spans (Score:5, Funny)

    by Umbral Blot ( 737704 ) on Saturday May 06, 2006 @02:25AM (#15275683) Homepage
    Is it just me or are people's attention spans getting ... where was I?

  • Not what I was expecting... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by nickgrieve ( 87668 ) on Saturday May 06, 2006 @02:42AM (#15275734) Journal
    What is One Second Theater?

    GE is pleased o introduce "One Second Theater" an innovative concept in commercial content designed to capture the imagination of viewers. GE's One Second Theater is available to anyone with a digital video recording device and right here on this website.

    Here's how GE's One Second Theater works... blah blah 30 fps blah use your pause button blah...

    Gah, sounds like work, pass...

    Now if they had REAL one second films... that would be creative... but this is just 30 images in one second... not 1 second theater, but 30 frame slide show...

    So what are they advertising again? Jet engines?

  • Adblock string (Score:4, Insightful)

    by mrmeval ( 662166 ) <jcmeval@NoSPAM.yahoo.com> on Saturday May 06, 2006 @02:46AM (#15275746) Journal
    What's the adblock string to keep these out?

  • And now for the one second post... (Score:3, Funny)

    by mantar ( 941076 ) on Saturday May 06, 2006 @03:01AM (#15275779)
    Oh shit... I'm already out of time.

  • Here's my 1-second ad for Diet Pepsi and Mentos... (Score:4, Funny)

    by RyanFenton ( 230700 ) on Saturday May 06, 2006 @03:04AM (#15275783)
    Image [imageshack.us]

    Mint Mentos+2-liter of Diet Pepsi/Coke = Minor hillarity during a work break. Warm cola tends to work better than cold, 5-10 mentos seems to more than do the trick.

    There - that might just sell some otherwise undrinkable/inedible snacks!

    Ryan Fenton
  • Isnt SUBLIMINAL advertisement illegal? 1 second is very close to that subliminal line.
    • I think it has also been proven ineffective because the subconscious has no brand awareness. A Coke ad could make you buy Pepsi if you prefer that.
    • Actually, 1 seconds is not subliminal at all. Everyone watching will be very aware of what they see. The threshold for subliminal for vision is on the order of 1/20th of a second.

      As for subliminal advertising being illegal, it's not, at least in Canada. It simply doesn't work, so it's not used.
      • Actually, 1 seconds is not subliminal at all. Everyone watching will be very aware of what they see. The threshold for subliminal for vision is on the order of 1/20th of a second.

        I saw United 93 several days ago and saw series of red dots flash on the screen twice during two separate plane scenes.

        I know they are anticopy measures used to stop bootleg 'camrips' but couldn't Universial give the cap codes a rest for a film as momentous as this?

        If the cap codes were only on a single frame, that is 1/24 of a se
  • I didn't RTFA.
    It didn't hold my attention long enough since I've trained myself to ignore anything related to ads.

    The only thing in here which has caught my attention is the post somewhere up above containing this:
    (.)(.)

  • I hope this catches on (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Frogbert ( 589961 ) <frogbert@gmail . c om> on Saturday May 06, 2006 @04:40AM (#15275972)
    Imagine if this caught on! If every company was doing this you would have roughly 180 ads in your normal 3 minute ad break. The sesures would suck a bit though.
    • Normal 3 minute ad break? Oh how I wish, the last time I watched television (admittedly years ago) it was at 7-8 minutes and getting longer by the day.
    • The test is to watch the last 10 seconds of The 6th Day over and over.
    • That would reduce the overall value of the middle spots. No, you would now have the typical 9 minutes of ads over a 30 minute show dispersed more evenly. You might still have 3-5 advertisers in a row, but now you could have, say 10-20 seconds of show, then a 3-5 second ad break.

      I predict that if this really catches on, you'll find companies expanding their ads to 2 to 3 seconds each. Eventually, they'll likely move to "sub-show" lengths of 30 seconds - possibly all the way up to a minute in length, thou
  • Now the average three minute ad break will have room for 200 ads!

    epileptics around the world are turning off their televisions




  • Do you want to see it again ?

  • Life is too short to be taken seriously.
    Like these adverts.
  • "Seeing a murder on television... can help work off one's antagonisms. And if you haven't any antagonisms, the commercials will give you some."
    - Alfred Hitchcock

  • yep... was to be expected (Score:4, Insightful)

    by __aahlyu4518 ( 74832 ) on Saturday May 06, 2006 @08:07AM (#15276329)
    Advertising was dying slowly... Well.. every company was advertising its pants off, but with the average audience that has a concentration with very short timespan (anyone noticed that series on tv don't last an hour or an hour and a half anymore but when you take away the commercials they are about 35-40 minutes), and a total overload of commericials, nobody is paying attention anymore. Well.. there's always tellsell that weak minds fall for.. but anyway...

    So what do you do when a product/service is about to kick the bucket? You re-invent it. And to be honoust.. this could be brilliant. Not only do you revive the interest of the advertisers... you can charge them a huge amount more !! Or do you really think they pay 1/30 of the amount they were paying for a 30 second commercial ? No way !!

    So you make maybe 5 times as much money per second and you have maybe a couple of years to come up with a real solution for the declining interest with consumers, before advertisers get a clue they were suckered. 1 second is just to short for being called subliminal messaging.. but not by much. So maybe it will 'hang around' in people's brain... but that's just the brand... not how good it is.. you can't get a real message across.

    But I have a good advise... LESS advertising... maybe people will notice it again.
  • Gabbo!
    Gabbo!!
    Gabbo!!!
  • Theese ought to be popular with hippies & vietnam vets.
  • Now I can fast forward through 200 commercials on the Tivo insted of 3 or 4.

    Seriously I would rather see companies trying crap like this, you have to want to watch the full version. I like this idea much better than trying to find ways to MAKE you watch the commercials. This plan only subjects you to 1 second unless you opt in.

    Algerath

  • Make them psychedelic, please! Even more fun for stoned people watching TV!
  • First of all, this is a sign of desperation from a major consumer-facing company. It could be GE or Sony or anyone else. The only difference here is that GE is advertising their advertising plans, rather than trying to be surreptitious like many other companies. This just means that they're smart enough to attempt publicity around their publicity--metapublicity, really. At any rate, it's a sign that advertising as we know it is dying. This is no surprise--advertising evolves fast, and things that were norma
  • Anyone remember the episode with Zipping that caused a person's head to explode due to the large amount of data being presented?
    • I believe that was the original show, "20 Minutes Into the Future," back in 1987. Also, I think it was on Conan O'Brien not too long ago when they did a parody of the show "24" called "60," where each episode is one single second in a one-minute storyline.
  • in the form of advertising is regulated by law. GE advertising approaches subliminal advertising through unconscious messaging as its medium encroaches upon the limits of human awareness inability to detect changes within broadcast frame rates.

    Marshall McLuhan's "the medium is the message" taught us the connection between presentation and content back in the 50's. Subliminal messaging circumvents Reason? What does bypassing Reason accomplish?

    Studies have proven that subliminal is ineffective without the
  • At first, I thought it said they were going to put these 1-second ads in DV cameras, not DVRs. I was about to flip out for a second there...

    Now, if only all commercials became 1-second blips and they cut down the commercial space accordingly (instead of putting in more to fill up the gap). Longer shows and less fast forwarding!
    • Longer shows are exactly what the networks do NOT want. Their profit model is based on selling you, the viewer, to advertisers who PAY the TV networks to run ads for them.

      The networks use THE SHOW as advertising to the advertisers - "We have this show which we can guarantee will have ten million eyeballs watching this week (or near enough thanks to Nielsen et al), so for $X million you will have lots of exposure for your ad."

      This is why your TV shows get shorter in actual running time, they have ads before,
  • I read the topic as "One second abs" and I thought, oh man, I'm there :).
  • Lets hope they lose this round.
  • OK, now I am 100% positive that time really is speeding up.

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