Television

While watching my hour of television, I focused on the different forms of advertising and to what specific audience it was geared. Most of the commercials were made according to the social class of the audience, but some gave the appearance of inefficient advertising.
The first show I watched was COPS. Many of the commercials were directly associated with who was watching the show. In general, COPS is watched by a lower class, younger audience. Some of the commercials seen in this 30 minutes included lawfirm, foreclosure, and general supply store ads. I did not once see commercials for kids toys or new cars. The companies involved in the advertising business run promotions during time slots in which their targeted audience is watching television.
The second half hour of television that I watched was a show known as MaxX; a real-life show with accidents caught on tape. One would assume that this show would attract a younger, more masculine audience. Before the show began I predicted the types of goods and services that would be promoted in this time slot. I envisioned fast cars, Bow Flex kits, and beer commercials would rule this time slot, but to my surprise this was not the case. The first several commercials were actually retirement fund and life insurance policies. Did this mean that the companies misread the audience completely when paying for the advertising? Or have I misread the audience horribly? I must assume that the experts involved in advertising know more than I, so there must be a large portion of older people watching this show. This made me wonder exactly why there is a significant portion of our elders were watching a violent, grotesque show on a Sunday afternoon. I guess some things I'll never know the answer to.
While watching my hour of television, I focused on the strategies used by companies in focusing on a target audience in advertising. While most of the cases were consistent with my conjectures, several completely baffled me.