TV COMMERCIALS GET PERSONAL & A PAIR OF SHORTS

NEW YORK, Oct 2 – Advertisers now have the ability to know when you're cold so they can tempt you with a TV commercial for chicken soup and on days when the pollen is making you sneeze they can target you with an ad for allergy meds thanks to the Weather Channel.

The cable network has developed new technology, IntelliStar, which can monitor conditions in local markets and allow advertisers to "instantly' target viewers at the precise time when their commercials will have the greatest appeal, according to a report in the upcoming edition of Broadcasting & Cable magazine.

It gives new meaning to the term "narrowcasting' and has enormous implications not only for the Campbell Soup Co., but for any marketer who is seeking to pinpoint customers, according to B&C.

"The ability to pinpoint potential customers has never been more critical for any business,' says Anne Becker, the B&C reporter who inked the story. "One major pharmaceutical company, which declined to be identified, is considering using IntelliStar's ability to track the local pollen count so they can promote allergy medications when the local count is high and asthma medications when it is low.'

IntelliStar gives Madison Avenue a new "micro-marketing' tool—a way to reach the right audiences at the right time with the right message.

"When the book of the first 100 years of television advertising is written, this is the beginning of an important chapter.' That's how Paul Iaffaldano, the GM of the Weather Channel's media solutions group, described the technology.

Iaffaldano: "We want the net result to be that the ad the consumer sees is so personally or contextually relevant they actually like seeing the commercial.'

Campbell soup is one of the first four advertisers that have signed up for the new system. LG Electronics, Pinnacle Food Corp. and Six Flags are the other three. Weather was Campbell's motivation; Six Flags rides is using the system to tout rides based on weather conditions at its regional theme parks.

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WHAT PRICE LIBERTY: Thursday is usually a big revenue night for TV programmers. Not so on September 30. Broadcasting & Cable did the math and reports in its October 4th edition that the presidential election debates could have cost the three broadcast television networks well in excess of $61 million in ad revenues, collectively. They pre-empted regular prime time programming to let John Kerry and George Bush have at it—commercial free. "The giant sucking sound you just heard was the cost of civic duty,' explains B&C.

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GRUESOME: Talk about violent programming. Check out the FCC's "Kids' Zone' Web site. It features a Hangman game that ends up with the corpse of a "Freddy Krueger look-alike with skin grayer than a CSI corpse,' according to Broadcasting & Cable magazine.