Have you noticed like me the increasing number of TV commercials that are dubbed?
Posted at 7:15 a.m.
For some time, I have had the strange and unpleasant feeling of returning to the 1960s, when many commercials suffered from a lack of synchronization between lips and words.
Nowadays, if you pay attention, you will realize that dubbing methods have become highly refined. We imagine from the start concepts where the dubbing portions are minimal and subtle. The characters that appear on the screen are often distant.
Two or three doubled sentences, a narrative voice at the end of the message, and voila!
To validate this observation, I called Jean-Jacques Stréliski, associate professor in the marketing department of HEC Montreal. After three seconds, this advertising specialist confirmed this to me.
“You are not mistaken. It’s an effect of globalization and standardization of both advertising and production. The reason is clear: it’s a question of savings. »
The enormous fragmentation of advertising distribution channels, in all its forms, forces advertisers to make choices. To ensure a strong presence for their advertisers, especially on the web, agencies must reduce budgets, including the one used to create original campaigns for more specific markets such as Quebec.
It should be noted that the production costs of an original television campaign in Quebec (not including media placement) can vary from 1 to 2 million dollars, sometimes more, depending on the number of messages to be produced, the complexity of the shooting and the talents that are hired (if a big star is chosen as a spokesperson, the costs will be higher).
It should not be thought that only Quebec is affected by this phenomenon of standardization. These advertising campaigns, created in New York, London, Amsterdam or Toronto, are broadcast “turnkey” in several countries by hiring a few local actors who go to the studio to flatten their voices.
The designers of these “standard” messages demonstrate a certain ingenuity in addressing all audiences. Jean-Jacques Stréliski lingered to observe these details. “The thing is subtle. We make casting with people who are not too typical. It is sometimes difficult to tell, with the dress or haircuts, if the characters are Americans, English-speaking Canadians or Quebecers. »
Does this strong presence of dubbed television advertisements mean that Quebec viewers will be entitled to fewer messages that speak to them with the colors of their language and their culture — I am thinking of the recent Maxi campaigns with Martin Matte or that of Familiprix and its famous “Ah! Ha! “.
Jean-Jacques Stréliski believes that there are still about “fifty” brands and companies that can still afford original television campaigns in Quebec.
Dominique Villeneuve is President and CEO of the Association of Creative Communication Agencies (A2C). She believes in seeing things differently. “Quebec creation now passes through several channels. Concepts made here, there are many. They are distributed differently. »
Anik St-Onge, professor of marketing at the School of Management Sciences of the University of Quebec in Montreal (ESG UQAM), is also of this opinion. “We will see fewer original campaigns on television, but if you notice, we continue to play on the strings of Quebecers on the radio and on display, and especially on the web with content marketing. This is now where the creative aspect is strongest. »
Each year, A2C manages the Idéa competition, which brings together Quebec advertising creations in six categories. Last year, no less than 400 projects were honored.
Still, the medium of television remains synonymous with “public space”. Pascal Routhier, head of strategy at the Rethink agency, likes to use the analogy of “stage” to talk about media such as television and “behind the scenes” to refer to certain others. “This phenomenon has a negative impact on the health of brands,” he says. If you stop existing “on the stage”, it’s more difficult to interfere in popular culture. »
We can obviously wonder about the effect of these “standardized” messages on consumers. Do they have the same impact as a concept developed here and intended to speak to people here? “What characterizes good advertising is the way it plays with our emotions,” explains Anik St-Onge. However, these adapted campaigns rarely succeed in this objective. It becomes so neutral that you no longer notice them. »
Anik St-Onge is absolutely right. This way of doing things provides an effect that I would call a “Sears catalog”. We find ourselves in front of smooth, ordinary and mat concepts.
“It’s not just a question of language, but of tone, of cultural references, of complicit winks,” adds Pascal Routhier. How many advertisements in French sound hollow and generic? […] I think the big losers in this are not Quebecers, but rather the national or international brands that are missing an opportunity to better communicate with Quebecers. »
It must be said, good funny or moving advertisements are part of the pleasure of viewers. As we prepare to dive into the famous television season, I invite you to do the exercise of submitting the barometer of your emotions to advertisements, those that speak to you directly and those that try to seduce you artificially.
After all, advertising essentially pursues the same goal: that of making us spend. It would be the least you could do to ask us by looking into our eyes.