Champion
•
7.4K Messages
•
275K Points
Commercials as database entries
Back in January, contributor and champion LuvsToResearch posted in the thread https://getsatisfaction.com/imdb/topics/guide_for_submitting_online_videos:
I note that I was told by an IMDb rep that they ARE now accepting commercials. I replied that then a guideline would be necessary since commercials don't usually come with credits. So, there is another whole mess we've gotten into!Accepting commercials seemed like a bad idea to me, as I wrote on Contributors Help in the thread at http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000042/nest/239133343:
Not only is it difficult, for many commercials, to identify the cast or crew, but for most commercials it's not even obvious what the title of the commercial should be. Trying to add commercials to the database would seem to create significant data management problems.I stated in the same thread that commercials were then listed as "Not eligible" in the guide at http://www.imdb.com/help/search?domain=helpdesk_faq&index=1&file=resumeeligible. This situation has changed, and now commercials are listed as "Eligible" there. But there was no announcement of this change except via the editing of that guideline page. More importantly, no guidelines have been provided as to how commercials should be submitted to the database. To quote myself again in the Contributors Help thread above:
Accepting commercials is a problem because unlike most of the other types of productions IMDb accepts, commercials typically don't have ascertainable titles or cast credits or crew credits. The same commercial could wind up being accepted into the database more than once if a contributor can't identify the title under which someone else submitted it. And without cast and crew credits, it's hard to know how useful such entries for commercials could be. ...Is there any chance that the staff will draw up guidelines for submitting commercials? Right now, to me, it seems that if someone was going to submit a commercial to the database, it might be classified as either a TV movie or a TV special, depending on whether the commercial featured actors playing fictional roles or not. There isn't really an appropriate title type for commercials yet.
If the IMDb staff has considered the data management problems and now thinks that those problems can be overcome, that's their decision. But if they are going to do that, they ought to provide some guidelines. That would be preferable to some staff member saying, "Yeah, we decided a few months ago to start accepting commercials ... we don't care how you decide what the title of the commercial is or who the cast and crew are ... you people figure it out, it doesn't make any difference to us anyway."
nobody_7029854
756 Messages
•
29.6K Points
9 years ago
0
0
dan_dassow
Champion
•
19.3K Messages
•
475.6K Points
9 years ago
There is a subscription service for tracking the viewership of US national television ads:
http://www.ispot.tv/
This service is also available on a limited basis to the general public. It provides, when available, the title of the commercial, the agency which produced the ad, the advertiser and actors.
As an example, the current most popular ad is
GEICO App TV Commercial, 'BBQ Awards' Song by Tag Team
http://www.ispot.tv/ad/79zn/geico-app-bbq-awards-song-by-tag-team
IMDb has two additional problems due to the availability of ispot.tv:
1. IMDb's data on commercials would be much less than that ispot.tv.
2. ispot.tv will likely be one of the sources of evidence about about commercials. There is a strong possibility of copyright infringement as a result.
There is also a fundamental issue of what constitutes a different commercial. A US commercial may have a one minute version, a 30 second version and a 15 second version. Some US commercials also have Spanish and French language versions with entirely different actors.
Other questions come to mind:
How should infomercials be classified?
Should political ads be included?
Should commercials that are only shown once be included?
Should only national commercials be considered or should local ads also be considered?
Do trailers to promote films and television programs constitute ads?
Will IMDb only consider recent ads or will they consider ads aired during the 1950s?
Will IMDb only consider US ads or consider ads show in other countries?
Will IMDb consider radio ads?
Will IMDb consider ads shown in Movie theaters?
I strongly recommend that IMDb consult with advertising agencies when developing standards for what to include.
0
gromit82
Champion
•
7.4K Messages
•
275K Points
9 years ago
In the last paragraph of my original post here, I wrote, "Right now, to me, it seems that if someone was going to submit a commercial to the database, it might be classified as either a TV movie or a TV special, depending on whether the commercial featured actors playing fictional roles or not. There isn't really an appropriate title type for commercials yet." That part has been addressed in the Title Formats guide at https://contribute.imdb.com/updates/guide/title_formats, which says:
My earlier concerns regarding figuring out the "title of advert" and the cast and crew remain open. Also, it may be difficult in some cases to be sure what the year of the commercial is due to a lack of publicly available data.
1