How I watch TV nowadays, or perhaps, don’t watch TV nowadays, is a reflection of
a greater human phenomenon that is obsessed with multi-screen-tasking.
According to a 2014 survey by Statista, 70% of South African respondents use their
mobile devices while watching television or “meshing’ – a term coined to describe
the simultaneous viewing of related content across multiple devices. I am Rui, and I
am a mesher.
Despite my advanced state of meshing, I believe that the power and relevance of a
great TV commercial remains strong and resonant and able to evoke enduring
images, memories and emotions. To me, great TV commercials remain
unchallenged in our time-starved and heavily curated modern lives.
I tend to work late into the night, catching up on emails that I can’t get to during the
day. This takes up about 80% of the evenings in the average work week. My poor
TV viewing habits also compete with all the social media platforms that I look to for
a small respite or distraction from the email gauntlet. This includes short bursts of
Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, as well as my lesser home email
account and a few other random links and blogs.
I’m usually facing away from the TV with my head buried in a laptop, mobile phone
or iPad. To make things even more challenging for the TV, I lived in Hillbrow for 14
years with the never-ending streaming sounds of people, cars, trucks, bikes, buses,
fire-engines, hooters, sirens, air conditioners, miscellaneous and infinitely moving
elevator machinery, loud music, live music, high winds and sometimes screams,
echoing up and reverberating around the canyon-like building grid. As a result I can
tune out ’noise’ better than a set of very expensive noise-cancelling headphones.
Did I mention my latent attention deficit issues?
And yet a great TV commercial, that most uninvited form of all TV content, will still
find a way to cut across all of the above-mentioned obstacles and barriers. A well-
crafted TV spot with a strong concept is able to cut through anything… even on only
an audio level with a subtle frequency of sound.
There’s something immediately appealing about it. It might be a well-chosen music
track, imaginative sound design, well-written words or even a well-timed silent
pause. This skillful use of audio elements is enough to pull my poorly appointed
attention in from the sea of sameness on either side of it.
Even at a very low volume.
So now it’s got my attention. I’m looking directly at it.
It follows through with powerful visual imagery. Emotive. Evocative. Insightful.
Honest. Authentic. Possibly humorous. It’s intense and intoxicating and kind of
addictive. It’s just a 60′ TV commercial.
I’ve not felt this kind of connection from any other channel as of yet…
Two seconds later, however, and I’m pinning, liking, commenting, browsing, surfing
again. Click…click-click…clickety…click…
Written by Rui Alves, Executive Creative Director at Y&R
