High-Priced Ads: For Younger Viewers Only

By Lisa de Moraes, Wash Post 3/21/04

    Have  you ever wondered why TV advertisers will pay a premium to reach 18-to-34-year-old viewers when older viewers have more disposable income and can actually afford that hot little car they're trying to sell?

It's complicated. First, advertisers believe that by the time you reach a certain age, you have pretty much decided which brand of dishwashing detergent you like and you're going to stick with it. Younger viewers, on the other hand, are still trying to figure out whether they prefer Excedrin to Bufferin and whether they look better with hair dyed by L'Oreal or Clairol.

Second, advertisers believe that by the time you reach a certain age, you are much less likely to buy a product just because Michael Jordan is wearing it. You want to know whether that cross-training shoe is going to help you with your pronating problem and how it's rated by Consumer Reports. (Unless, of course, you're being pitched a little pill that, the ad promises, will bring you greater happiness, less acidity, more mobility or a four-hour erection.)

But, mostly, advertisers covet younger viewers because older viewers just watch a lot more television. Period.

Younger viewers are harder to reach via television because they spend so much of their free time listening to their iPods, trolling the Internet, playing video games, watching DVDs and, in the case of Washington area college students, getting drunk on M Street and trashing neighborhood property.

"Younger viewers spend less time watching TV, and that's what makes them so expensive," agreed Nielsen Media executive Jack Loftus.

"If you track the level of 18-to-34 viewing, it's been going down for years. Not only are they difficult to reach, but they're watching an average of about four minutes less on the average night than they did last year."

  According to Nielsen, during the February sweeps, people 50 and older spent about 43 hours in front of the TV. Those 18-to-34- year-olds spent a little more than 27 hours watching.

Advertising on TV is kind of like dating in high school. The more available you are, the less desirable you are considered.

And if advertisers are willing to pay more money to reach 18-year-olds than they are to reach 55-year-olds, and a network suit knows the 55-year-olds are probably going to watch his network anyway, guess what, the network suit is going to tailor his new series to the tastes of 18-year-olds.

Which is how you wind up with a show like "Coupling."