Not Thriving: Long Form Promo

Note: This thread was proposed by lee4hmz.

Analysis: This is another Basic Commercial Type that's not thriving, even by the new rules on Advertising Tropes; it has examples, but last I checked, there were only 3 wicks. The concept is still valid (the sorts of expensive promos described here are still frequently used as Super Bowl Specials), but it seems Too Rare to Trope in its current form, largely because the most memorable examples (promos produced by TV networks to advertise the upcoming season) were made in The '70s and The '80s and went out of style as networks cut their budgets after 1995 or so.

What to do: I was originally thinking a merge with Station Ident would work, but I'm not sure now; perhaps cutting and yarding would be better. What do you think?

Paging ~lee4hmz to the thread as requested.

In addition to the low wick count even with the revised standards for advertising tropes, the page has a problem with general examples and ZCEs.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Feb 23rd 2024 at 11:55:00 AM

Not familiar enough with what’s being discussed to give a concrete opinion. It’s clearly not thriving in its current state, but I’m unsure of what exactly to do with it. First option is to simply merge with Station Ident, but if others think it’s a distinct enough phenomenon, we can instead yard it.

Merge and yard any possible meaning that is distinct from other tropes.

It was definitely A Thing back in the 1970s and 1980s, but ever since cable and streaming took off in the 1990s, the networks just stopped bothering. Yarding would probably be best, since it's a Forgotten Trope, and any writeup of it now would be more like a Useful Note than anything else.

Also, I think the style a lot of these use (with big, prominent jingles and a Greek chorus extolling the virtues of the product) could be yard-worthy, since a lot of normal commercials of the time used it, but I have no idea how to convert that into a trope.

Edited by lee4hmz on Feb 23rd 2024 at 9:58:49 AM

Merge and yard seems the best option for now

Merge and yard

I find it very odd that the trope doesn't mention television channels that consist solely of Long Form Promos such as the defunct ShopTV Canada.

It should be mentioned in that trope.

Otherwise, I agree with merging and yarding.

Edited by Nen_desharu on Feb 24th 2024 at 11:25:27 AM

You mean like those home shopping channels where they basically spend an hour talking about the same product?

It's a related phenomenon but this is different in that it's an ad for the channel itself (or the company behind the channel).

to yarding and merging.

I'd think companies making long adverts about how well they're doing would be pretty common, but if it doesn't have wicks there's nothing we can do but to cut it. Someone can bring it to TLP if they want.

Edited by Amonimus on Feb 26th 2024 at 1:25:34 PM

Didn't take long to dewick (which is part of why I called the crowner after two days, the other reason being overwhelming consensus in favor), so locking.