Commercials and Cable Television

I chose to analyze the commercials that appear on the cable television channel ABC Family. I analyzed the channel in three one-hour segments during the shows "Still Standing"' "My Wife and Kids", and "Gilmore Girls", which air at 11am, 1pm, and 4pm, respectively.
The commercials during the eleven o'clock hour were very heavily oriented toward the stay-at-home mom, as this is who is home during this time. The commercials consisted mainly of food, beauty, and family. The Scott toilet paper commercial showed parents dropping their daughter off at college. The Welch's Juice commercial was informative and focused on family health. There was also a large number of commercials for cleaning products such as Swiffer and Clorax.

During the one o'clock hour, the commercials slowly started to shift toward a younger demographic. While the majority still consisted of many of the same commercials seen in the 11 o' clock hour, ABC Family began to introduce "younger" commercials. These commercials include Ice Breakers gum, electronic Scrabble, and a commercial for the new PG-13 movie "Red Riding Hood".

When "Gilmore Girls" aired at four o'clock, the majority of commercials shifted to the younger demographic, with the smaller portion of commercials devoted to parents. The commercials geared toward the younger demographic included: Extra dessert gum, Nike, iPhone, an anti-drug psa, Butterfinger, and a commercial for the new PG-13 movie "Beastly".

The commercials I viewed on ABC Family were 30 seconds in length, focused on giving a large amount of information, and were family centric. They were not flashy, and were relatively straight forward, and simple.

I do think that the commercials that appear on cable networks, such as ABC Family, differ from those found on major networks. ABC Family had very limited network commercials, about one during every commercial break. Also, there were no local commercials, which often appear on major networks.