I am really fed up with advertisements

Right iam a bit angry at Pentax I sit down and turn on the TV and what I see bloody Nikon canon Sony Panasonic and every camera under the sun.
And guess what not one Pentax add anywhere so can some one tell me why?? It’s coming up to Xmas and every other maker has an advertisement BUT ONE US WHATS GOING ON? we got the new Q we got the K5 and no add I don’t get it??
Sorry rant over

phew.......

I would think that the cost of advertising is the main reason. Pentax are a much smaller concern than the others mentioned- just think about the size and reach of a company like Panansonic- their camera division is a small part of the business.

Whether Ricoh will stump up for Pentax TV ads remains to be seen- they would want to see some return on that investment- can't say I've seen a Ricoh ad so dont hold your breath.


On the other hand you dont see adverts from all makers- Leica, Sigma, Pentax.

Pentax doesn't seem to get any "accidental" advertising either. Just watch the news, how many Pentax do you see flashing away when a "celeb" is going into court etc. It will be a shame if PRIC camera division disappears.
In the TV series "Six Feet Under" I think one of the characters used an old Pentax film SLR, not a lot of use as product placement

We get these flurries of lack of confidence every now and again!

It was only a rumour and there hasn't been any announcement from Pentax that I've seen.

Ricoh have not had Pentax for very long and we don't know The Plan yet, but I'm sure the plan wasn't to close themselves down. As business plans go, that would be a pretty weird one.

Does anyone still watch TV adverts? With them taking the Micky
increasing the volume and running 5 to 6 1/2 mins of adds every
10 minutes I automatically switch over to a BBC/PBC channel or play
4-5 mins of video

For every hour of TV you now watch (at increased volume) about
20 mins of adds. I prefer to record the progs if possible and
then advance 4-5 mins when the adds come on using the 1 minute
advance button on my remote It really is getting beyond
a joke especially when I'm actually paying for SKY

Slightly off topic there's a new channel on SKY callled
PBC (Ch 166) which is the American public broadcast channel,
similar to BBC4. This week they've had a film about Ansel
Adams and one about a tog who produced 20 books and films
about American Indians. They currently show 1min of trailers
no adds yet.

I'll have to have a look at that channel Algi. We tend to record a lot of programs (thank goodness for sky+) simply because the program planners of all channels only have, apparently, one time slot available, 2100hrs, for "new" programs. I thought the extra volume of the ads was because the audio was not run through an equaliser. The tech guys will probably shoot me down for that

As regards Pentax ads, if you have a great product why not tell everyone?

Seen that Ricoh are advertising at that tennis tournament happening at the O2

The extra volume is because they run the adds sound channel through a Compressor which raises the lower volume bits up to the same level as the higher volume bits. It has the effect of fooling dB meters into thinking that the volume is lower than in it is. I'm not sure if it applies to all channels, but by law the volume of the adds is supposed to be lower than the volume of the programs, so they get round it by using a Compressor

Well I am just glad those annoying Nikon ads seem to have vanished from my TV. I was in danger of throwing something at the screen when they came on.
Don't get any other camera ads here though, only Nikon.

The volume on ads has been turned down now thankfully.

It is at the stage where I record programmes which are on the "commercial" channels here (all channels have ads but some have more ads than others :evil simply because the ad breaks take up to 8 minutes at a time. They never come at a logical point in a programme either - instead of using one of the breaks provided on US programmes they cut to ads almost mid sentence at times.

It would be good to see some Pentax product placement maybe instead of ads. You know like all CSI folks use Nikon cameras - maybe Pentax could do a deal and get them all using K5s instead. Far more subtle but still quite affective.
I know someone who bought a Nikon simply because CSI uses them .

The reason for cutting to adds at odd scenes is that most of the
commercial companies act like a cartel and synchronize their
add breaks to prevent "channel hopping"

Shows what idiots they are when they think that people will
sit and listen to adds at about 4x the program volume
That's what the mute button on the remote is for

Well ITV1 must be doing something right 12% increase in advertising revenues

link

As for lack of Pentax advertising, they have just been taken over by Ricoh so i am guessing marketing budgets & planning needs to be discussed with the new owners. A marketing campaign doesn't just happen overnight.

Pentax has recently carved out itself a niche market in outside pursuit type photography & looks like being a good niche to aim for. If a camera is good for rugged outdoor use it will handle a lot of bad treatment.

As for not seeing many Pentax cameras at press calls etc, the majority will be Nikon as the major news & photo agencies are backed by Nikon. So when a photo journalist needs a 600mm lens then a quick call to Nikon will result in a loan. I am not sure about canon as I don't see many dealings with the big agnecies with them. Canon users tend to be owned by freelance agency togs...

Here is Getty photographer Ian Gavans kit for the VMA Awards this year supplied by Nikon now if Pentax could supply half those lenses they would make some headway but shows just exactly what the company is up against & why they need to focus on smaller niche markets.

The ad breaks are so long now that I find them useful sometimes to get small jobs done whilst watching a programme of an hour or longer. A longer job like washing the
evening pots at the weekend can be split between three or four consecutive ad breaks.

If only the advertisers knew that they are paying through the nose for the privilege of informing my goldfish that...

As for specific product advertising, I think Pentax have decided to use the money available to reduce the price of their products by offering cashbacks. There's nowt people like more than paying less for something. Expensive advertising often leads to price increases as manufacturers need to recoup the cost. Take Duracell...they spend more on battery advertising in the UK than all the other manufacturers combined each year. They also sell the most batteries...but their products are also the dearest and are not necessarily longer lasting than the equivalent battery from a rival.

I'm rather glad Pentax dont advertise on TV. It tells me its a real photographer's camera brand. Ya never se Leica Advertise. Canon, et all appeal to the mass market. Pentax is something special.

That said, if they start to advertise then my opinion will obviously change accordingly.

Long live no advertising, and long live decently priced high quality cameras!