Drug makers fought long and hard to get rid of regulations that prevented them from advertising prescription drugs on television. Now we get to laugh at lengthy lists of hysterical (not to mention frightening) side effects. But the real goal of all that lobbying by drug makers is to make us pester doctors for more prescriptions.
Mission accomplished.
Who does the most pestering? Seniors.
If you want to know which networks seniors are watching, just look for Pharmaceutical spots.
Pharmaceutical Airings By Network
|
11/7/15 - 11/13/15 |
11/14/15 - 11/20/15 |
11/21/15 - 11/27/15 |
|
Fox News Channel |
133 |
Headline News |
216 |
Headline News |
221 |
|
CNN |
98 |
CNN |
112 |
Reelz |
177 |
|
Reelz |
95 |
Lifetime Movie Network |
93 |
CNN |
177 |
|
Lifetime Movie Network |
75 |
Reelz |
87 |
H2 |
168 |
|
POP |
80 |
POP |
79 |
Fox News Channel |
167 |
|
AMC |
68 |
Fox News Channel |
79 |
Discovery Fit & Health |
115 |
|
History Channel |
67 |
National Geographic |
77 |
Lifetime Movie Network |
106 |
|
Discovery Fit & Health |
62 |
History Channel |
69 |
Great American Country |
99 |
|
USA |
54 |
WeTV |
68 |
History Channel |
98 |
|
National Geographic Wild |
53 |
Discovery Fit & Health |
67 |
USA |
90 |
Networks like Fox News, Headline News, and CNN will come as no surprise. History, H2, National Geographic, National Geographic Wild, and Discovery Fit & Health aren’t very far removed in terms of content and viewer demographics.
Let’s take a look at some of the other networks that showed up multiple times in the past three weeks.
Who would have expected Reelz? Especially so high in the ranking week after week. Apparently seniors like to supplement their informational programming and breaking news with celebrity news and explorations of pop culture.
Lifetime Movie Network almost matches Reelz in airings. Women make up an outsized portion of seniors, so it makes sense that pharmaceutical marketers and media buyers make LMN a priority.
POP offers an eclectic mix of programming, ranging from reality shows to professional wrestling. It also airs soap operas and quite a bit of nostalgia programming, such as The Love Boat and Dynasty. The primary audience for these shows was already going gray when they originally aired in the 80s. Now they’re coming back for more.
Perhaps the most important lesson pharmaceutical marketers and media buyers have to teach us about seniors comes in the form of USA and WeTV. You’ll find a bit of everything on these networks: comedies, dramas, scripted, unscripted, syndicated shows, original programming, and even some sports. Just about everyone tunes in from time to time, whether on purpose or while flipping through channels. In this way seniors are just like the rest of us. When it comes to TV, you’ll find them everywhere.
What do you think? Did we leave out any other essential senior networks?