Infomercials are longer, more informative commercials and are similar to a program that intends to sway people to a particular point of view or asks them to take certain action (such as buying a product).
What is an Infomercial?
The word infomercial comes from the two words “information” and “commercial” and is usually a longer commercial made to look more like a talk show but that calls for a specific and measurable response and persuades people to take a certain action or change their point of view to suit the advertiser. Infomercials can be as long as a television program (approximately half an hour).
The History of Infomercials
Infomercials are really about as old as the television industry itself as the early programmes were primarily marketing efforts. However, eventually limits were put on this type of advertising and so the infomercial came into being in about the 1970’s and gained even more popularity after 1984.
Characteristics of Infomercials
An infomercial may try to take on the appearance of a talk show or TV programme but is also easily recognizable by the strong pitches (“If you call within the next number of hours you’ll also get”, “but wait!”, etc.) and it usually uses either scientific characters trying to prove that the product is the best or celebrities that will convince people they need this product.
The Advantages and Disadvantages of Infomercials
Infomercials do attract attention and can be used to put across more information about your product that you would not normally be able to present in a short advert. The disadvantage is that this advertising medium is often criticized and people may not believe the infomercial because of what past infomercials have presented.
The infomercial is a longer advertisement usually in the form of a television programme such as a talk show but persuading people to take a certain specific and measurable action that benefits the advertiser. It also includes strong pitch lines and uses celebrities and scientific characters to try to create a stronger advertising message.
