November 28, 2007
Have it all
I've had this dream in the back of my head for a while now that if I someday won the lottery, I'd buy everything advertised on a single channel for one day. Every single item.
Clearly, I don't have the cash to do that for real, but tonight, Trevor and I decided to find out what exactly we would get if we did. What if you just couldn't help buying everything you saw advertised? What would you end up with?
During Wheel of Fortune, we wrote down every item which was pitched to us during the 7:30 to 8:00 time slot. We started with commercials, then added a few items that were pointed out for sale during the show.
Our highly non-scientific rules were: We wrote down any product which was showcased for purchase. Superpages.com had an ad for their services, but since we wouldn't spend money on their website, we left them out. Multiple items in the same commercial were fair game, as long as they were specifically mentioned either verbally or in print (e.g. three cars in one manufacturer's commercial).
We were off to an auspicious start when Wheel stopped the game to feature the Surf's Up DVD with a clip from the film. I had hope that a kid's movie would bode well for a future variety of products, but we later found that most ads fell into two categories: cars and drugs.
I figured that cars would figure highly in the ads, but I never guessed we would end the show with a whopping eight vehicles. They ran the gamut from minivans to pickup trucks. Not even Jay Leno needs that many cars.
Apparently, the average Wheel watcher has high cholesterol, constipation, headaches, sinus congestion, visible scars, stiff joints and a cat. Here's the list with price tags:
| Surf's Up DVD | $20 |
| Sony Home Theater System | $5,000 |
| Pontiac G5 | $16,000 |
| GMC Canyon | $15,000 |
| Friendly's Honey BBQ Chicken Quesadilla | $6 |
| Friendly's Chicken Wrap | $6 |
| Friendly's Sundae | $4 |
| $25 Friendly's Gift Card | $25 |
| PowerPlay Lottery Ticket | $1 |
| ECHO Center Admission | $9.50 |
| RenewIn | $10 |
| Senokot | $30 |
| Toyota Tundra | $22,000 |
| Bath Fitters Renovation | $4,000 |
| Dodge Ram | $22,000 |
| Eggland's Best Eggs | $3 |
| Zetia | $266 |
| Sudafed PE | $6 |
| Toyota Camry | $19,000 |
| MegaMillions Lottery Ticket | $1 |
| ActivOn | $10 |
| Bio-Oil | $12 |
| Chia Cat Grass | $15 |
| Chrysler Town & Country | $23,000 |
| Jeep Cherokee | $29,000 |
| Jeep Commander | $28,000 |
Our grand total was $183,424.50 of product exposure for a half-hour of television. Then again, we could save $4 by getting the Friendly's Sundae free with the purchase of an entree!
Comments
this is surprisingly fascinating. I guess you can tell a lot about a shows target demographic just by looking at the products they advertise.