Advertising & Television

Television commercials began being used in Britain in 1955, creating a huge stir, with most major companies creating advertisements. Commercial television is complex as there are a lot of advertisements, yet the benefit of advertising on television is that a product can be displayed to a target audience, in the comfort of their home, with sound and colour. Throughout all fields of media there are advertisements known as teaser commercials where they ‘top and tail’ the other advertisements. This is most frequently found in television where the product is often advertised at the beginning of the commercial break, with a follow-up at the end.

Music plays different and complementary roles in advertising as it attracts attention and carries a message, either implicitly or explicitly. Music is frequently used in advertisements on television, and in 1993 Appelbaum and Halliburton reported that 89.3% of television advertisements, when considering those shown internationally as well, used music as a predominant element.   This shows the importance of music in advertising, and that it has been found to have the desired effect on the consumer. In television the music used in a commercial as a jingle or in the sound track can be used to cue the visuals of the advertisement, yet when the listener then hears this track again they may associate it with the advertisement. Also if a catchy tune is used the viewer or listener may find themselves singing the tune with the words previously used in the commercial.

As well as being found in advertisements, music is now frequently heard through music videos on the television. In the 1980s cable television expanded and MTV became a popular culture in the music industry, creating a rise in the number of music videos. These music videos cannot function as an advertising message unless they have communication channels to the consumer. They require regular television time, or specific ‘music television’ channels, or outlets where such videos are played, to create maximum results. Music videos are, however, a standard marketing and promotional tool and allow the consumer to hear what the music industry has to offer. They reverse the normal relationship between picture and sound in television and film, where the picture is there to enhance the sound, as they are primarily used to broadcast music.