For over a year we haven’t had an actual TV – cable or broadcast in home or office, and it’s great. No longer having to sit through 10 minutes of ads an hour while watching anything is a great relief! The ads were never that well targeted anyway, lots of irrelevant stuff was pumped out. The vacuum was easily filled with news sites, YouTube especially with its longer format now, some Hulu. Just this week I watched the Presidential debate on MSNBC – and when it broke for ad breaks us guys on the Internet were blessed with 5 minutes of silence!

It was so good to get away from wall-to-wall corporate advertising.  Those corporate advertisers plug on now, trying to front up any news article on CNN, BBC etc and it’s a turnoff, literally sometimes, I’ll just hit the back button when the ad shows up and forget about the article. I think advertising of that kind may have reached its zenith and we’re moving onto a new phase, and I’m hoping upon hope that it gives independents a chance!  MacDonalds, Carl’s Junior, Taco Bell, Dell Taco, Wendy’s, Best Western, Enterprise, Hertz the list goes on and on – corporate national brands that have changed the face of America. For sure they serve a purpose – the harassed businessperson arriving in a new town may just find it easier to hit a familiar name for food, lodging, car rental etc.  Backed up by a barrage of national advertising all these companies can more or less ensure that we know what the service and cost will be, and that the quality will be delivered up to the brand’s usual standard (or thereabouts). But it’s not the whole story is it – don’t we all love to go to a local independent, maybe family owned restaurant or eatery, to be maybe recognized by the patron or waiter. To feel that both sides of the equation are making a contribution to the well-being and attractiveness of the neighborhood? For so long now these local independents have soldiered on in the face of overwhelming national attack. I think that is all changing now, with the advent of Social Media as one of the main business to client promotion channels.

There is seriously a limit as to how much we might want Taco Bell or MacDonalds  communicating with us on an individual basis isn’t there.  How long would you tolerate a McFeed into your Facebook stream? On the other hand, a local fish restaurant letting you know that there’s some particularly fine Dover Sole coming in is a, er… different kettle of fish, no?  And all those Midas and Jiffy Lube ads – won’t it be great for a local family owned auto-repair shop that’s been in the locality for 50 years to be able to compete on more equal terms?  The road is signposted clear ahead for an America where local business are richer and more diverse, and perhaps a touch more ‘regionalization’.