This is part of a continuing guest entry from Todd VanSlyck. Use these links to read his previous entry or learn more about Todd. (Also, be sure to check out his awesome stock footage on istockphoto.com)
OK, don’t get me started on bad graphics. This is the area that suffers the most when it comes to awful TV. Since you may be Stan’s future client and he may not want to hurt your feelings - I’ll be the bad cop here. If I was going to tell something to every single person that is thinking about making a commercial, here’s what I would tell them about graphics:
You’re not writing Moby Dick. Don’t try to cram so much junk in your commercial that nobody can read it. You have no idea how much that decreases effectiveness.
Use fonts that make the text legible. Serify or thin fonts might be OK as long as the text is large enough, but solid fonts are almost always a better choice. There are tons of cool, free, legible fonts on the web, and Stan has a bunch of them.
When it comes to colors, don’t use red. Red is bad. I know you want everybody to see your latest sale price, but bright red is very hard to read on TV.
If you want people to know where your business is or be able to find you on the web, put that information up for more than one second at the end of the commercial
Simple is very effective! Stan is great at simple, effective graphic design.
And just for good measure: Don’t flash your text on and off. That’s just tacky.
OK, I’ll get off my soapbox now. Sorry.