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The U.S. House of Representatives have recently approved a bill that will limit the volume of television advertisements. The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act or CALM which was approved in late December will introduce guidelines from the Advanced Television Systems Committee that aim to ban excessively loud advertisements and advertisements that are noticeably louder that the program they accompany. Although it will be another year until the FCC will start enforcing this new bill it raises some interesting questions and ideas concerning ethics in advertising.

Its now common knowledge that television ads are made louder to draw attention and hopefully be more memorable to the audience, but does this tactic work anymore? In the early days of television advertising this tactic was very clever, however, as the viewers evolve they will become immune to a trick like this. Today’s viewers are much more skeptical of what they see and hear so this cheap trick to attract attention could come off as rude and unnecessary rather than effective. The excessive noise is considered annoying to most and is would make them more likely to change the channel making it counterproductive. Also, assuming that they will be more susceptible to the brand message simply because it is louder can come off as disrespectful and seem like you are insulting their intelligence. I believe that this now practice is on its way out and therefore does not require government intervention. It does not harm anything but the brand’s reputation. It is nothing more than an old ineffective trick that is losing its place in modern advertising.

As more and more people adopt Smartphone technology it is being utilized as a successful medium for advertising. Sponsored mobile applications and web advertisements delivered through mobile devices have proven to be an effective way for brands to communicate their message to a targeted market by placing the ad literally in the hands of the consumer.

Last week, Greystripe mobile advertising network and Adgregate Markets advertising firm have introduced the newest platform to deliver advertisments through mobile devices; M-Commerce. As part of a full integrated marketing campaign, M-Commerce ads are rich media-enabled banner ads that allow the consumer to purchase the product directly through the ad effectively combining the point of discovery with the point of purchase. This new medium was introduced as part of the multichannel campaign for the DVD release of Quentin Tarantino’s film Inglorious Basterds. According to DM News, This new technology allows customers to use their phones to input credit card information and order the DVD through the e-commerce enabled banner ads. Adgregate Markets is confident this new platform will be a success as more people are expected to make purchases this holiday season via mobile phones but it is still unclear how many people will trust submitting their credit card information to a banner ad. Time will tell how effective this new medium will be but it is a good example of how brands are utilizing new mobile technology to reach the customer like never before. Although it may take a while to catch on with skeptical shoppers I believe calling the consumer to purchase the DVD on the spot through the ad will ultimately be successful. An estimated 53% of purchases made in the stores are impulse buys and this new technology allows for impulse buys virtually anywhere.