The root problem with our economy right now isn’t a credit crunch
or the disposal of toxic mortgage-backed derivatives. It’s the fact that a huge percentage of our economic output isn’t really necessary: much, if not most of our Gross National Product comes from people making, transporting, marketing and financing goods and services that other people don’t absolutely need.
What don’t you need. Just about everything. Does anybody really need a new car? Obviously, a lot of us think not, and new car sales are plummeting. Hell, most people don’t really need cars at all. Automobiles add tremendous convenience and opportunity to our lives, but few people would actually keel over and die if they didn’t own one. And the same can be said for most of the things we spend money on. Double half-caff Macchiatos. TVs. Spa treatments. Cell phones. Most of our clothing. Any shelter more elaborate than a pup tent and sleeping bag. All food intake over 1600 calories a day. And so on. Don’t believe me? Join the Army and take basic training – you’ll see how little you actually need to survive. In our current recessionary economy, people discover more and more things every day that they don’t absolutely need. So they cut back, causing a ripple effect for the people who make, transport, sell, etc. all the stuff we don’t absolutely, positively need. It’s a downward spiral with no clear ending – or at least, not until everyone lives in a pup tent. Remember that old buzzword “synergy” – when everything comes together for positive effect? This is the antithesis – call it dissynergy.
Advertising: from intellectual scourge to economic savior. What’s the solution? As David Ogilvy once confessed, it’s advertising. While he denied our industry’s culpability for a host of other societal maladies (including wasting our collective intelligence), in Ogilvy On Advertising he does admit that we are collectively guilty of one thing: tempting people to squander money on things they don’t absolutely need, much to the dismay of “left-wing economists” who are “ever eager to snatch the scourge of God.”(!) Today, of course, I think it’s safe to say that economists of all types would be tickled pink to see a little more needless consumer activity. And us ad guys are just the folks to make that happen. We know how to create that perception that this (whatever it is) is the one special thing that is missing in your life. That everyone who is anyone is clamoring to get it. That if you are the last kid on your block to have it, you will be doomed not only to an unhappy childhood, but to years of tedious psychotherapy thereafter. And it’s this not-so-fine art of persuasion that’s needed to get consumers spending again. The Treasury Secretary and his rocket scientist pals can fiddle all they want with credit markets; if people don’t feel a need to buy something, there won’t be a need for credit.
TV advertising: the quicker picker upper for consumer demand. So what kind of advertising is going to have the most immediate and positive impact on your company’s economic situation? Assuming there’s a decent-sized pool of prospects for your product or service, the answer in almost all cases is TV. Or as David Ogilvy called it, “the most potent selling medium ever devised in the history of mankind.” No other medium comes close to being able to deliver your message to so many people in so little time for so little cost per impression – and while the landscape has changed, this is still true today. And if you’ll excuse me for offering a ham-handed endorsement of my own product, TVLowCost is a great way try out TV advertising for not a lot of money at all. So if self-interested profit motive isn’t enough to get you to try it, I encourage all you marketers out there to do your duty as an economic patriot and try advertising your wares on TV. Preferably with TVLowCost. We deliver quality TV advertising, TV production and media at an amazing value. Ourlow-cost business model devlivers quality and security to our clients. You can find out more about TVLowCost at our web site or Facebook
Danny Klein is the Creative Director of TVLowCost USA.



Recession is a popular descriptor recently, right? And not a single days goes by without hearing it many times. As Advertisers cut their budgets … they compound their difficulties.


