Making an advertisement for television often costs more than to make a movie. For example, a two-hour movie costs $6 million. A TV commercial (广告节目）can cost more than $6,000 a second.And that does not include the cost of paying for air time. Which is more valuable, the program or the ad? In terms of money --- and making money is what television is all about --- the commercial is by far the more important.
Research, market testing, talent, time and money --- all come together to make use want to buy a product. No matter how bad we think a commercial is, it works. The sales of chairmen went up once the ads began. TV commercials actually buy their way into our head. We, in return, buy the product.
And the ads work because so much time and attention are given to them. Here are some rules of commercial ad making. If you want to get the lower-middle-class buyer, make sure the announcer（播音员） has a tough, manly voice. Put some people in the end who work with their hands. If you want to sell to an upper-class audience, make sure that the house, the furniture, and the hair style are the type that the group identifies（识别） with. If you want the buyer feel superior to the character selling the product, then make that person so stupid or silly that everyone will feel great about himself or herself.
We laugh at commercials. We don.t think we pay that much attention to them. But evidence shows we are kidding ourselves. The making of a TV commercial that costs so much money is not kid stuff（幼稚的事情）. It.s big business. And it.s telling us what to think , what we need, and what to buy. To put it simply, the TV commercial is a form of brainwashing