For the sake of saving life on earth as we know it, we asked the creatives if they could explain why car ads deem it necessary to scream at listeners. Their responses will be encoded by NASA and beamed out into deepest space. On our planet, they might serve as guideposts as to what makes for good radio.
Kilgannon believes such spots hearken back to an earlier time. “It’s a circus, carnival type of selling that’s gone on through the centuries,“ she explains. “Instead of it being a medicine man selling elixirs, it’s car commercials.“
“That’s like asking why the sky is blue,“ answers Robinson with a laugh. “Car guys yell at you because they think they have a great deal and the only way you’ll really understand how wonderful it is, is for them to scream it in your face.“
“We have a theory that a lot of advertisers think listeners are dumb,“ says Smeltzer. “They think the only way to get someone to listen them is to yell. To me, it’s patronizing. It may very well work with listeners who are dumb, but I think most listeners are intelligent enough to receive a message without having it rammed down their throat. They prefer to be treated with respect. I never want the listeners of my work to have something slammed at them.“