Anybody here in Marketing or Advertising? A question about Howard Stern's show.

[Mike 03]

He is enormously popular, and I understand why any company would want to pay to have him endorse a product...

But--and this is a huge but...

When he reads the ads, it is obvious he doesn't even know what he's talking about, and it is also obvious that he does not use the products. He doesn't even sound like intends to suggest that he does.

And the same goes for other similar male-oriented "out-of-touch" talk show hosts on XM like "Ron and Fez" (a brilliant program) and I'm guessing this is true of "Opie and Anthony" which is so bad I can't listen to it.

One week Heineken is the official beer of the Howard Stern program, and the next it is Beck's, and meanwhile on his show he is saying he never drinks alcohol or only drinks wine, or whatever, or there will be an ad for a porno site and Howard Stern is saying he never bothers with those sites and that he is more interested in the Chess internet sites or watching pornographic videos.

Why would any advertiser spend what I'm guessing is a lot of money to have an icon advertise their product when they are so obviously completely oblivious to what the product is?

Just one of the many fascinating puzzles of modern marketing I would love to learn more about.

[MorningGlow]

1. Exposure, plain and simple

It's all about the numbers: Howard Stern's show pulls in huge numbers. Just having their product mentioned--in ANY way--is worth the coin they drop. Howard--or any host--doesn't have to sound convincing--he just needs to say the name of the product. The advertisers are relying on people's lizard brains kicking into gear and thinking nothing more than "Howard...(name of product)...me like Howard...Howard says (name of product)...so me buy (product)."

That's about it! :)

[leeroysphitz]

2. It's part of his shtick. Like when he burps during a live read commercial.

Advertizers know the deal and will put up with just about anything to reach his audience.

[NJCher]

3. my take

I've been an ad manager for three Fortune 100 corporations and I am also a professor in a media department and teach both graduate and undergraduate courses in advertising. I would say what MG says above but with a slightly different angle.

As she says, they are buying exposure. The advertiser is looking for a target audience and the target audience Stern delivers is not found many other places. They are hard to reach, so there isn't much competition for these advertisers to go to.

Second, I doubt if the advertisers even listen to these ads. They probably don't even know that Stern et al is even showing such contempt for the products that sponsor his show. After all, the advertising managers aren't in the same target group as the type of people who listen to his show.

You say that because he's enormously popular, any advertiser would want him to advertise their product. That would not be the case. I would say most advertisers would not want to identify their product with Howard Stern.

Now, I doubt you care this much but if you wanted to have a little fun with this, you can test out whether I am right or not. Record one of the commercials Stern delivers and send it to the advertising manager at the corporation (not the ad agency, the corporation). Tell him/her the type of thing you mention in your post, like about him saying he drinks wine only. Comment on the poor, unconvincing delivery. Then ask the ad manager why they put their money into such an unconvincing presentation. Say you are what you are--just a customer with curiosity.

I'll bet you anything Stern will change his delivery. He may even resentfully comment on what the sponsor conveyed.


Cher