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Advertiser Pulls Ads from ABC in Response to Cancellation of Soap Operas

Apr 19, 2011  •  Post A Comment

The cancellations of the long-running soap operas "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" are creating fallout for ABC, with one advertiser saying it’s “disappointed” by the decision and announcing plans to pull its ads from the network, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The advertiser is vacuum maker Hoover. "We will discontinue our advertising with ABC this Friday, 4/22," Hoover marketing executive Brian Kirkendall wrote Monday on Hoover’s Facebook page. "We’re making every attempt to pull our spots from these programs sooner."

The vacuum company has even created a new email address, SaveTheSoaps@Hoover.com, to gather support for the soaps and send it to ABC, the article notes. "All My Children" will end in September, while "One Life to Live" will finish in January, the story says.

4 Comments

  1. Good for Hoover. I’m sure other advertisers will follow. It’s bad enough that they cancel the soaps in the first place but then ABC replaces them with groan-inducing lifestyle shows the likes of which are already all over the cable dial.
    It’s called SOMETHING ORIGINAL.
    It’s a shame the bottom line is so much more important than any level of creativity.

  2. I agree. I watch less and less television, sometimes none for days, because of the cheap and voyeuristic reality/talk/talent shows. How can anyone be entertained by watching another person suffer indignity, embarrassment, silliness, etc? If this is the TV audience, I will not be part of it? Bring back creativity.

  3. I agree. I watch less and less television, sometimes none for days, because of the cheap and voyeuristic reality/talk/talent shows. How can anyone be entertained by watching another person suffer indignity, embarrassment, silliness, etc? If this is the TV audience, I will not be part of it? Bring back creativity.

  4. As for the bottom line being more important than creativity…let’s not forget that these shows got the name “soap operas” for a reason, and it had to do with the constant advertiser fluff and product tie ins.
    ABC does have a bottom line, and the fact that the cable nets are already littered with this garbage doesn’t mean ABC shouldn’t pursue their share of the pie. Sure, from a consumer perspective it’s a bad deal. But I’m sure ABC realized that they’d lose some of their current advertisers (like Hoover) as a result of this decision.
    They must have gotten some information that showed they’d be better off in the long run with a different set of shows. Only time will tell if they made the right choice.
    I don’t watch any of these soap opera shows, but I’m not sure how creative they really are anyway. It really just sounds like scripted reality television with all the drama, sleeping around and pre-planned stunting. So instead of actors acting like subhumans we’ll have the authentic article!

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