It’s Thursday night and I’m sitting on the couch browsing the web as my little brother watches TV. TruTV: Impractical Jokers, high intensity television. That being said, the commercials are also calibrated to their target market: my brother. A Taco Bell commercial comes on advertising one of the new variations of the Baja Blast Mountain Dew slurpee (or something of the sort), and my brother is salivating at the thought of it. But something is very wrong with this commercial…

For some reason, this special slurpee was only offered in the afternoon, he checks the time, “Dang it! Too late to get one!”. TacoBell just lost a sale. I’m sure a million other teenage boys were watching that same commercial, thinking the same thing. My brother would have gotten up and left the house, driven 40 minutes round trip for that slurpee, but he saw it after the time it was offered. Why in the world would a company in the food industry air a commercial after available hours?

Of all business to advertise on TV, the importance of timing is most emphasized in the food industry. When people watch food commercials, they get hungry and are motivated to go after something that looks good. Beer and fast food companies absolutely thrive during football games because people make a food run during halftime or commercial breaks. So why is it that TacoBell is advertising something that’s currently unavailable? I wish I could find and link to the specific commercial, but you’ll have to trust me on this one.

As it is, television advertising’s effectiveness declines rapidly every year. People have DVRs and TIVOs that fast forward right through that million-dollar ad. Our generation has learned to ignore advertisements after being bombarded with them constantly throughout our live. It’s just noise in a world full of static. Sure, it has a wide scope of audience, but it’s hugely expensive, and not nearly as effective as a myriad of low cost advertising efforts.

It just goes to show how important it is to do research in the timing of advertisements. This can apply to every mode of advertising– when your tweet or blog goes out, which magazine issue you pick, and certainly when you want your customers to desire that delicious thirst-quenching slurpee.