Adult Swim for an Hour

  I decided to watch Adult Swim for an hour because I have a strong affinity for adult cartoons.  I had hoped to stay up late because I know their commercials get progressively more and more segmented/strange (less likely to be ones used on other channels).  Alas, in my old age I only made it through the 9-10pm hour of "American Dad", though there were some unique commercials worth highlighting.

First I should touch upon the programming and types of advertisers.  For those who don't know, Adult Swim is Cartoon Network's post 9pm offering to grown-ups who still love to nurture their inner child through watching cartoons (albeit adult-themed cartoons).  "American Dad" and "Family Guy" are both shows from FOX that have their own hour on Adult Swim, and I don't feel as though either one really needs an introduction.  There is also "Robot Chicken" (claymation sketch comedy is how I would describe it), "Super Jail" (Willy Wonka with anger issues meets prison, after copious amounts of LSD), and "Venture Bros" (Scooby-Doo type animation, fun story line about a semi-successful scientist, his sons and bodyguard, and their many super villian type adversaries); among others.

This type of programming obviously lends itself to a nice segmentation of the market for advertisers.  There are the usual fast food commercials, car commercials, and the like.  However, it does invite edgier products/methods (such as condoms, in the example I am about to include below this paragraph).  There was also a trailer of the movie "Taken 2" that featured more violence than on more mainstream channels, as well as a trailer of the same movie that was a simply awesome paper cartoon that I cannot find video of anywhere I (if I find it by Monday I will insert it).

Also, Adult Swim features some of the most original and weird self-promtions I've seen anywhere.  I feel they hit their audience perfectly with the vast majority of these, and will include an example or two below before I begin to break down the advertisements more specifically.

 

•  Creativity: In terms of creativity, there are almost unlimited possiblities given the market advertisers reach via Adult Swim.  For example, the paper cartoon trailer of Taken 2 cannot be undersold, and I am bummed I cannot find it (someone was looking for it on Yahoo questions, so I may revisit that post to see if it gets answered).  It is a very liberal audience (obviously), which allows for unique methods not possible on many other networks.
• Length: Often the Adult Swim bumps are fairly succinct, but at the same time extremely memorable.  Commercials in general appear to be shorter on Adult Swim, perhaps making a statement about the viewers attention span (ha ha), more likely the freedom of the network placement allows them to get their point across quicker.
• Format: It is not unusual to see animated commercials, which I would think cut down production costs to a great degree.  Also at times they have advertising that doesn't have any spoken words, or at times just a photo rather than video.  All in all I think the wide array of formats allows companies to save a great deal of cash.
• Objectives: Advertisers using Adult Swim must have a product they consider marketable to a relatively small segment.  Given the potential trend setting options available coupled with the loyal market (still watching cartoons!), provided they are creative and thoughtful they can sell a lot of products utilizing this venue.