Commercials Marketed To People's Fears And Hopeful Expectations

Some marketing / advertising is silly on purpose.
Other forms of marketing are scientifically measured
 to play on your emotions and fears and expectations.

Doing the laundry the other day at the public wash house, I was reminded of something.

It wasn't actually 'me' doing the laundry, but the machines.

So I do my small part by putting the clothes in and out and 'watch' the machine do its job.

I baby sit the clothes, fold them when dry, and take them back home.

There's a television in the wall behind plexiglass to protect it from thievery, I guess.

That day, the volume was higher than usual.

In between the black and white western movie playing were commercials repeating the same theme.

If you pay close attention, it is possible to figure out the demographic of television watchers for certain programming, certain channels, and at certain times throughout any given day.

How?

For this particular channel (not sure which cable channel it was), at this hour, and for this 'show', the commercial marketing was most likely not to wealthy people.

Nor was the commercial marketing to young people.

From several different companies, I noticed a single offering of the same 'product'.

The product was an insurance whose payout is triggered at death.

A product specifically to cover the cost of a funeral.

An average funeral amount was repeated with little variance between competing commercials at $8000 to $8500.

I grew tired of hearing the same solicitation every few minutes.

Getting bothered had my mind consider the message's aim and all the rest of it.

I recall how my maternal grandparents had planned and paid the cost of their respective funerals decades before those events came to pass.

My mother did the same thing.

To be clear, my relatives were not wealthy nor, in my critical opinion, business savvy.

But they were savers.

They were very disciplined regarding their incomes and their expenses, and did not desire to leave their personal expenses to others.

So although they likely would fit the demographic according to economic standing, or tax bracket, or ethnic group, and whatever other metric is measured in marketing, these commercials were not for them due to small but important factors I already mentioned.

I was then reminded when watching other programming at other times.

Every so often, I have lunch or dinner at a nearby restaurant that has a couple of screens usually with sport programming on them.

When possible, I change the channel to find something to my liking, like an animal / nature documentary or something scientific, or something historical, or something more mind stimulating.

While watching such programming, again not familiar with which channel of the hundreds available on cable, the commercials are precisely marketed to a measured demographic.

Some of the commercials for such programming to my liking offer retirement investments.

It may be the same age group as the commercials between segments of that old western movie at the laundromat, but a very different tax bracket according to the commercials.

Even the individuals used in the commercials, to portray 'who' would be the clients / customers of both products are 'aiming' at a predominant ethnic group.

The retirement investment products show people playing golf, or sailing ships, or wining and dining somewhere.

The funeral insurance shows family members hugging, at times maybe a worried or solemn face, and then people with some kind of resolve (because, of course, the cost of the funeral was covered and was something not challenging their pocket books).

I can be very critical when it comes to these things, likely because I explored and studied these programming methods at university.

I can't help but find commercials at times disgusting, unethical, and pandering to people's fears, gullibility, ignorance, and other things.

I then catch myself from that negativity trap and make an effort to think about the positive, the good.

The funeral insurance product serves its purpose, no matter the cost or timing of the payments and the eventual death... and despite if the two actually coincide, I ponder how it may actually help soften the impact of a death and the risk of financial turmoil for some people.

Coincidentally (not really, but I use that word for the sake of others) that same week I was watching my clothes go in circles I had a conversation with a dear retired friend.

He shared with me how over 20 years ago he had began paying into an insurance plan that was triggered upon his death and would provide a payout of $10,000 to his wife / children.

The premium monthly payments were, if I recall correctly, about $173 a month.

This was before the age of computers, so he would write a check every month and put a stamp on an envelope (an extra monthly cost less than $0.50, but still an additional reoccurring monthly cost).

He shared with me how after so many years, after not dying (obviously), he did the math and realized he had paid over $13,000 into a $10,000 insurance plan!

He cancelled the policy.

I couldn't help but think that there was no fine print about any equity being returned to him in case of cancelation, or some other factor.

He says since then he's been paying the same $173 into an account of his own, virtually making for himself a proper 'insurance' plan that not only gains (even at current interest rates a mere pittance) a bit every year, but will not be lost as that overpaid insurance plan, but is his equity only bothered by the rate of inflation at worse.

My mind has been considering more equitable 'insurance' schemes (ideas / plans) that would benefit the client / customer, granting them some kind of return and freedom regarding the 'service' instead of a loss at cancelation, or an inverse plane that may eventually pay out less than was put in.

Of course, this means the business of such products would be shown for what most of them are.

What will also be shown is the level of discipline the common person needs to assume in planning out their own financial leverage, futures, and retirements / investments / promised events of this life.