The most difficult sell is to convince a local business to hire you to do their commercial for local television airing. The local affiliates of the major networks here in town offer to produce the commercial for free so that the business will pay for television airtime. My bias is pretty deep when I say that the spots are crap. They do no service to the businesses that are trying to get their message to the masses by dumbing it down with no ounce of creativity or professional acting.
I say this as I prepare an animation graphic for a local business that wants to use it for a commercial. Instead of going through the advertisement agency that produced their promotional pieces they want to use pieces of the promo in the commercial. So I’m preparing hours of my time so that the local TV company can use it in their commercial and claim it as theirs.
A big lump in my throat doesn’t want to give them the credit. But I’ll take a big gulp of water and hopefully the lump will subside as I’ll be a professional and honor the ad agency’s wish to give the local affiliate so they can make it look like it is theirs.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Jill Foster // Sep 25, 2007 at 1:17 pm
Well that’s a tough one but your portfolio & creative work are EXPLODING with diverse options — that’s so exciting.
2 Andy Coon // Sep 25, 2007 at 3:10 pm
Jill,
So many choices, and I’m so thankful. I’m glad that people are receptive to my work.
3 Lenslinger // Sep 25, 2007 at 9:26 pm
‘They do no service to the businesses that are trying to get their message to the masses by dumbing it down with no ounce of creativity or professional acting.’
I know lots of talented folks who would bristle at that assertion, but I ain’t one of them. Guess ya get what ya pay for…
4 Andy Coon // Sep 26, 2007 at 3:42 am
Talent is there all across the board, but most of the time it is get it in and get it out. Just the nature of the beast. I’m not taking a shot at the people creating the spots but the atmosphere.
I learned what it takes to edit commercials 2 weeks ago as a freelance editor and it was a difficult work. I have so much more respect for producers/editors that work in that position than you might think by my post.
I guess it upsets me when someone comes along and grabs your work to paste it on theirs because the client went to them because of the price of the ad. My words were to harsh, not aimed at the talent by any means.
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