FRIDAY AFTERNOON REVISIONS

UGH! It's almost 5pm and I just found out that I have to revise material that is to air next week. I just had to send out a revision. Thank you to all of my station friends for understanding that these decisions are not made by the traffic department and for not shooting the messenger.
Enjoy your weekend everyone!

STANLEY CAME TO VISIT!

USE OF THE CANADIAN MAPLE LEAF IN TV COMMERCIALS

Here’s another one we came across the other day.  We are developing a campaign for one of our clients for a product that is strongly identified as a Canadian tradition and there are quite a few images of the Maple Leaf in the advertisement.

Any use of the 11-point Maple Leaf or the Canadian Flag images must be approved by the Department of Canadian Heritage prior to broadcast.  Our government holds these symbols in high regard, as “symbols of Canada, and a celebration of what we are as people”.  We have to be careful not to use these symbols in any way that would be considered disrespectful or derogatory.  To gain permission contact the Program Officer at the Department of Canadian Heritage: info@pch.gc.ca

ADVERTISING DIRECTED AT CHILDREN

Children’s advertising is strictly regulated and, unlike other categories, all advertisements directed to children are reviewed by a committee consisting of industry and public representatives. 

This committee meets every other Monday throughout the year. Commercials submitted for review must be fully complete and ready for air. Once the committee has completed their review, they issue an ASC KIDS clearance number, which is valid for one year.   This clearance number is required, in addition to TVB and CBC approvals, for all TV campaigns that include media weight in Children’s programming.

In the province of Quebec, the general rule is no advertising can be directed to children at all.

The ASC BROADCAST CODE FOR ADVERTISING TO CHILDREN (CHILDREN’S  CODE) has the most strict regulations of all the categories for review.  It was developed to recognize and respect the special characteristics of children as an audience. Reasoning behind such strict regulations is that children, especially very young children, can’t distinguish between reality and imagination (fantasy) and therefore advertisers must be extremely careful with their messages.

 Here are some highlights from the Children’s Code:

1)      All presentations must be factual, and must not exaggerate the properties of the product.  You can’t show a Buzz Lightyear toy flying through the air on it’s own if the child can’t make this happen (if it’s not a flying toy).

2)      The relative size of the product must be accurately established. You can’t make the toy look bigger than it actually is. This is often established by showing a child playing with the toy.

3)      No advertising directed at children can directly urge the child to purchase or to ask their parents to purchase.  Call to action lines like “go see the new Princess movie” are unacceptable. You must rephrase with a line such as “you can go see the new Princess movie”.

4)      Any contests or promotions must not exceed one-half of the advertisement. If you are advertising a kid’s meal that contains a toy or a cereal that features a toy or giveaway, you must be careful to ensure that at least half of the commercial is about the product (the meal/cereal) and the give-away is not the main message.

5)      Any characters well known to children cannot endorse or be used to promote the product. This includes puppets, cartoon characters and sports figures. If you are advertising a kids’ movie, you can’t have one of the characters from the movie talking about how good it is.

6)      The way advertised items can be purchased must be made clear, with a mention of any additional required components. For example – “batteries sold separately” or “game and system sold separately”.

7)      Comparison claims are not allowed. You can’t insinuate that your product is better than a competitors. Also you can’t imply that a new or next-generation product is better than the original or last year’s model.

8)      Social values must be consistent with moral, ethical and legal standards of Canadian society. You can’t show a child being disrespectful to his parents or his teacher or exhibiting bad behavior in order to get the product being advertised.  This is a pretty standard clause for all radio and television advertising in Canada, but there is no leeway in this regard when it comes to kid’s advertising.

9)      Advertisements must not imply that possession or use of the product makes the owner superior or that without it the child will be open to ridicule or contempt. For instance, you can’t show a playground scene where one child is ostracized for not having the new “cool” toy, or looking dejected because he doesn’t have one.

Because of the strict nature of this category, it’s best that concepts be reviewed at the early script development stage so any potential infractions can be revised before ideas have been sold to a client or production dollars have been spent. ASC is always happy to weigh in on storyboards or any initial rough ideas, and they keep all such material strictly confidential.

IT'S ANOTHER SHORT WEEK (AND I'M NOT COMPLAINING)

Because some of the agencies we service were closed yesterday, it's another short week. Even though we were open for business, it was a very very quiet day. So quiet in fact, that it was a good day to get caught up on filing, and paperwork, and a great opportunity to do some overall tidying up.

Although, I must admit, we get so little "down time" that when it's not very busy it becomes extra hard to get motivated to do paperwork!
However, yesterday is now a distant memory, and it's back to the matters at hand. We now have one less day to get material, scheduling and instructions to our station partners.
I guess we have some work to do!

AGENCY PERKS-SUMMER HOURS & EXTRA-LONG HOLIDAY WEEKENDS

A couple of the great things about working in advertising are the Summer Hours or Long Weekend policies.

For some agencies, Summer Hours mean that from mid-June until mid-September the office opens ½ hour early Monday to Thursday, but on Fridays the office closes at 1pm. It’s worth starting your day at 8:30 when you can look forward to sunny Friday afternoons out of the office.

 Other agencies choose to add an extra day to every long weekend, year-round, instead. For instance, if Friday is the statutory holiday, then the office is also closed on the following Monday.  If the holiday falls on Monday, the office is closed as of 5pm on the Thursday leading up to the long weekend. Yippee to that idea!

Our organization is a bit more complicated. Our traffic department services more than one agency, and the agencies we work with do not all follow the same schedule.  Some of our agencies have the 1pm Summer Hour closing, and some have the extended long weekend.

It’s a conundrum for us. We can’t be closed when our agency partners are working.  So we can’t leave early on Fridays when our agency partners are in for the full day and we can’t takan extra long-weekend day if the agency we work with is open for business.

It would be nice if our agencies could pick one or the other (1pm Fridays or extended long weekends) and all be on the same page. However, such is life and we have to roll with the punches. We just quietly work amongst ourselves to cover each other’s desks and take a few hours out of the office whenever our workload permits.

We certainly can’t complain too much, since most people with grownup jobs work 9-5 workdays all year long. Plus, when the sun is shining, we have a beautiful lakefront boardwalk nearby where we can spend the occasional lunch hour. Bring on the summer weather!

13 SIMPLE STEPS TO GET YOU THROUGH A ROUGH DAY

Here's a cute one that I got from BUZZFEED.COM.

STEP 1- Print this picture and hang it over your desk:

STEP 2- Be uplifted by this inspiring Corgi Cross Stitch:

STEP 3- Feel Pretty:

STEP 4-Imagine that you are this penguine:

STEP 5- Feel empowered:

STEP 6- Remember that these dogs are on your side:

STEP 7- And this dog with a goat will fight for you as well:

STEP 8- Be happy you aren't one of these people:

STEP 9- Be happy that these aren't your taco shells:

STEP 10- Hey Johnny Depp had to iron his grilled cheese sandwiches too!

STEP 11- Allow yourself to enjoy these pictures of dogs:

STEP 12- Look at this cat riding a rooster

STEP 13- Look at this cute hedgehog wearing a tiny hat:

There....don't you feel better now?

HAVE A HAPPY EASTER LONG WEEKEND! 

COMPETITIVE ADVERTISING IN CANADA

Sometimes a client will get some research results that are just too good not to share, especially if those results show that consumers prefer the client’s product over a major competitor’s. When this happens, naturally the results should be publicized, but before anyone starts producing spots that trumpet the client’s victory to the world, there are a few things to keep in mind.

Comparative and competitive advertising in Canada has to meet stricter standards than those enjoyed by our colleagues south of the border. Unsurprisingly, Canadian advertisers are required to be a little more…polite.

We cannot interpret research results in a way that disparages the competitor, no matter how tempting it is to work a little jab into a creative concept.

For instance, we can’t say “Our widgets are better than Company X’s widgets” even if we have research that concludes our widgets are more durable, tastier, bigger and better value than Company X’s widgets. Instead we can only report the facts, back them with client attestation letters, and wait to see how Company X responds.

So our advertising will say “Our widgets are preferred over Company X widgets 9 times out of 10 by Canadian widget consumers”, with a legal super to indicate the source of this information. Company X can then respond by complaining to Advertising Standards Canada (ASC), Telecaster (TVB) and/or CBC Advertising Standards at which point we’d have to be able to prove that our claim was truthful and accurate.

A spot that implies that the competitor’s widgets are unsafe or inferior will never see the flickering light of a TV screen.  Subtle details can make the difference… adjectives need to be used with care, actors cannot sneer at a competitor’s merchandise, and that merchandise can’t have packaging that resembles the competitor’s trademarked packaging.

If you come across a creative concept that takes a nice jab at the competition, please make sure you share it with your traffic coordinator before your client falls in love with it. Often scripts and storyboards can be tweaked in the pre-production stage to make sure that no rules are broken, but it’s much harder to fix issues in spots that have been produced. Check early, check often!

SUPERLATIVE CLAIMS IN ADVERTISING

Here’s a situation we dealt with recently while reviewing a new TV script:

In the script, the voiceover referred to our widget as a “product produced from the finest materials”.

We have to be very careful when using adjectives like “finest”, “best”, “warmest”, “most” etc. 

Superlatives indicate a claim of superiority over all other comparable products and that’s something that the regulatory boards cannot accept without a client attestation letter.  This is a document provided by the client, on company letterhead with a signature, stating that they can attest to all of the claims made in the advertisement.

Although this letter can be general in nature, meaning the actual proof of superiority does not have to be provided, the advertiser must be willing and able to provide the details if/when the claims are challenged by a competitor or consumer.

If our advertiser cannot provide substantiation to back up the claim, the script must be reworked and the wording changed to a broader claim, such as “produced from their finest materials” or “some of the finest materials”.

Although we have to be cautious with the use of superlatives, this one sounds pretty good, don't you think?

IT'S A SHORT WEEK!

Easter is right around the corner!  Our offices are closed this Friday, and part of our agency is also closed on Monday.
In addition, this means our broadcasters are working on advanced log closings.
Just as we mentioned in our Feb. 13 blog posting, we need to get material and instructions to our station friends a day early, in order to give them the necessary time to schedule our commercials with the best placement possible.

Short weeks are very busy and stressful, as we try to fit 5 days of work into 4 days, and deal with all the associated deadlines, but a day off to spend with family and friends makes it all worth it!