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Recycling TV Ads

Posted by michael on from the reduce-reuse-recycle dept.

Makarand writes "According to this article in the Denver Post a young entrepreneur has gotten into the business of recycling junked TV commercials for clients with low budgets. TV ads cost anywhere between $50,000 and $1 million and small businesses usually cannot afford an original production. The company, Thought Equity, wipes off all references to the earlier company and makes the junked commerical ready for reselling with a price tag less than $10,000. Also businesses that want their ads on the air as soon as possible are approaching the company seeking recycled ads because producing original ads takes time."

4 of 296 comments (clear)

  1. Makes you realize... by TheLoneDanger · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Makes you realize just how little the ads actually have to do with their products. The Simpsons episode with the artsy-fartsy commerical for Mr. Plow skewered this nicely.

    --

    "But I trust in the people's capacity for reflection, rage and rebellion." -Oscar Olivera
  2. Recycle *Old* Ads? by graveyardjohn · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Heck, they're recycling *new* adverts for different regions of the world! When a firm can't be bothered to shoot a new advert for a product, no matter how cheap the first advert was, they just chuck some voice-over actors into an overdub studio for a different world market. It really instills confidence in the product and respect for their intended audience.

    And in some cases, adverts are recycled from pop-culture, current affairs, and famous events. Tons of adverts barely even feature the product in question. Should anyone remember the product the old advert was selling, there could be some interesting humourous cut-and-paste opportunities in the offing....

  3. Re:nothing new by bakes · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've seen a few episodes of JAG, and seen re-cycled footage from Top Gun, Hunt for Red October and Clear and Present Danger, and that is just the stuff that I recognised.

    --
    Ho! Haha! Guard! Turn! Parry! Dodge! Spin! Ha! Thrust!
  4. Re:Ultimate ad secret by hurtstotouchfire · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I'm seeing this as a brilliant opportunity for more tongue in cheek ads. There are some ads I definitly wouldn't mind seeing recycled over and over again with different companies. Plus there's the added humor value of seeing a commercial that you know for sure used to be a weight-loss commercial and hey now it's a beer commercial!

    It's also beautiful in a philosophical sense, it just really shows how far our ads have drifted from the actual point of an ad, which I suppose is to say something about the product.

    I think it's all going to depend on this: "The key is how many clients are small enough and isolated enough and sophisticated enough to know they are isolated and still be willing to do this?"

    And also their media partners. They listed Comcast, Collegiate Images and Index stock on the home page. If they've got enough cash behind them, it's likely that the legal issues will be negotiable.

    Incidentally, can anyone find a clip of that beer commercial where they're making fun of the fact that they can't actually drink beer on television?