The Ad Man Answers #22

Thursday + Gregory Huffstutter = The Ad Man Answers

Q:  What are you thankful for this year?

A:   The Ad Man is thankful that reading isn't going away as a preferred leisure activity.

At least not according to the latest Harris Poll, as reported by Heidi Dawley in MediaLife...

Of course, Americans are swamped every minute of the day by this or that new technology, in this new era of media fragmentation in which diversions seem limitless: the internet, computer games, iPods, endless TV channels, and of course cell phones that do everything but tap dance.

Oh, and did we leave out reading? Yes, and we should not have.

As it turns out, for all these different toys, these wonderful new technologies, reading tops the list of things Americans would most rather do, given the choice, and by a large margin.

Not only that, reading is higher on that list than ever. Watching TV is No. 2, but a more distant No. 2. Reading is slightly more popular today than it was back in 1995.

"It is easy escapism, be it a book, the latest car magazine or a comic," says Regina Corso, director of the Harris Poll, which conducted the poll by phone in October. Harris asked 1,052 adults to name their favorite two or three leisure activities. The responses were spontaneous and unaided. That is, they did not choose from a list but were called to identify them cold, so to speak.

This was the 10th time Harris did the poll--the first was in 1995. Huge amounts of new technologies have emerged in that time, but reading has remained a consistent choice.

Back in 1995, it was actually close, with reading just nosing out TV watching, 28 percent to 25 percent. Now look what 12 years does. This time around, reading got 29 percent, while TV sunk to just 18 percent.

Meanwhile, rounding out the top five were: spending time with family and kids, which rose from 12 percent in 1995 to 14 percent in 2007; computer activities, which rose from 2 percent to 9 percent; and going to the movies, down from 8 percent to 7 percent.

Interestingly, for all the concern over health these days, interest in swimming, team sports and walking has fallen in popularity since 1995, or stayed flat. Only two fitness activities rose, working out at the gym and dancing.

Why is reading so high? There are a few things going on here, says Corso. For one thing, reading is a broad category encompassing all kinds of printed material, so that means things like magazines, newspapers, comics and books. (It doesn't, however, include reading on the internet.)

Reading is seen as a wonderful form of escapism, perhaps even more so now in our buzzing electronic world, as a chance to get away from all the buzzing.

If anything, it looks like these new technologies have come at the expense of TV. Consumers are swapping out TV time for the internet and perhaps other forms of electronic amusement, which raises a whole slew of interesting issues, as you think about it. The total time we spend with media has steadily increased with all these new media forms but the Harris finding suggests there may be a limited amount of time we can stand sitting in front of an electronic box, whatever it may be.

But here are some caveats to consider regarding these findings.

First is that respondents to polls often tell pollsters what they think they want to hear. It sounds better to say that you'd rather be reading a book than, say, spending an afternoon out at the track playing the ponies.

The other caveat is that the poll asks folks not what they actually do but what they would like to do. "A respondent could be thinking, if I had the leisure time, that's what I would do more of," says Corso.

In that sense, it's aspirational. And as we know, people are forever talking about how they don't have enough time in life to do the things they'd like. Asking people what they'd do if they had time to spare is somewhat akin to asking people what they'd do if they had a million dollars.

But all that said, there's no disputing that people hold reading in high regard.

"This may be a wonderful opportunity for publishers and magazine to tap into that. If this many people say this is one of their favorite leisure activities, they could market (these activities) differently," says Corso. "The worry is that if they don't tap into that, then I can see the numbers for computer and TV going up more."

Happy Thanksgiving, all you readers out there!

 

Gregory Huffstutter has been punching Ad Agency timecards for the past decade, working on accounts like McDonald's, KIA Motors, and the San Diego Padres. He recently finished his first mystery, KATZ CRADLE. The first 100 pages of his novel are linked here. For general advertising questions, leave a comment or send e-mail to katz @ gregoryhuffstutter dot com with 'Ask The Ad Man' in the subject line.

Comments

[Malcolm Campbell]

I question whether the new communications technology we're swamped with his freeing up time for anything other than installing the next rev or shopping for the latest whatever. The medium often gets in the way of the message.

In addition to many other things, I'm thankful for my old fashioned wall of books and that I don't need any new hardware or software to be able to read the newest of the new or the oldest of the old.

Malcolm