Hallmark spends, gets nada in return
December 6th, 2007 Posted in TV
The other night on CBS there was a TV movie special called Picture of Hollis Woods. I can’t remember anything special about the movie, it seemed like any other TV worthy feature. However, the entire presentation was sponsored by Hallmark and the commercial breaks were unbelievable.
I have no idea how much Hallmark paid for this but each 3 minute break (approx…it felt longer to be honest) was entirely made up of Hallmark ads. The first one was a :120 flick about a boy who is worried Christmas won’t come to their new house (they just moved). For the life of me I can’t find that chubby little guy on Youtube anywhere. At first I thought the movie was over and it had switched to a crappy TV show. However, it turned out to be an ad for Hallmark Christmas Ornaments. It just went on forever!!
Next were two back to back :30 spots about the employees behind the Hallmark cards and where they get their ideas from. Cute, inspirational but I’ve seen it a million times. Try searching up Walmart (specifically their testimonial commercials) or Century 21 on Youtube if you want to know what I mean.
The production was pretty high quality so I can only imagine how much it cost to shoot essentially a 3 minute commercial. Even with a bulk discount (assuming one exists somewhere), you are still looking at $2 Mil. plus the privilege of being the title sponsor of a crappy TV movie moment. That’s an expensive proposition. I say save it for the Superbowl, as least people will watch.
I hope, one day, I grow up to be so linguistically talented that I can convince a client to part ways with that much money for no apparent reason. That’ll be the day alright.
Maybe I’ll just go work for a BDC and see how they do it.
