Probably nowhere in the world is advertising on the television cheaper than in Guyana. A 30 second spot in prime time ( 7 10pm) can cost as little as $1000. A commercial can be produced for as little as $20,000. Guyana would seem to be a paradise for advertisers. Cheap and sweet as the saying goes.

But in reality it is more like hit and miss. Firstly there is no serious attempt to ascertain who is watching what programme nor who those people might be. With 17 stations going on all at the same time and a viewing audience of perhaps 400,000 an advertisement could reach 50,000 people or less than five hundred.

There is also no system to determine if the commercials paid for are actually run and whether they are run in their entirety. Some stations including the state run GTV lump together ten minutes or more of advertising at a stretch or cut in half way through a programme. These are practices that if they don't make the viewer very quickly switch the channel, irritate them so much that they become resentful of the product or service being shown.

The broadcasters use the same videotapes over and over and with each subsequent use the quality of the picture deteriorates. More irritations. Sometimes there is no regulation between the volume of the preceding programming and the commercial's much higher volume resulting in everyone fumbling for the mute button .

The content of the commercials also leaves much to be desired. Without naming products we are all familiar with the phony American accents and lame attempts at humour which might be mildly funny one time but when played for six months straight become eye rolling. The effectiveness of any ad diminishes every time a viewer watches it until the point where it and the product it displays become resented. Some in Guyana have been running for five years or more! Most of the time an ad just entails a few shaky camera shots of a load of products and then the name of the store. Often there is absolutely no attempt at creativity as in the eternal triptych offering for sale toilet paper ,cement and table salt which serves little purpose but to help young children to read. Does the company honestly think people will suddenly leap from their armchairs to purchase all three by the truck load?.

The advertising agencies deserve part of the blame for this state of affairs. They seemed to be resigned to a course that is high volume as opposed to high quality and have failed to convince their clients that truly creative and original advertising can help a product or service take off. Advertising companies worldwide compete for annual awards for the best commercials and these are always highly entertaining and often effective . In the late eighties sales at Wendy's a popular fast food chain in the United States sky rocketed after a series of ads ran featuring a little old lady who would go around asking people "Where's the beef?"

Over the years the advertising agencies have tried and failed to form an association . This would set standards for themselves in terms of good business practices and in how their clients' ads are shown . Collectively they would also be able to tackle the issue of non payment by defaulting companies. It would be a welcome move in putting some order to the industry.

But at the heart of the problem is the continued lack of regulation in the broadcast media . Theft of programming from North America means that stations which do not substantially produce local programmes , and most don't , have low overheads and are able to sell air time at a minimal cost. While this might have made some people some money in the past, every initially lucrative industry eventually attracts new entrants to the point where margins are diminished . It also stifles the creation of quality local programming as these shows cannot charge significantly higher rates . That is why there are so many programmes with a man and a telephone and a load of music videos.

Until the copyright laws are enforced and broadcasters have to incur costs either to buy foreign programmes or produce their own, advertising rates will not increase to the benefit of everyone involved. It might appear that clients would suffer with higher rates but this would not necessarily be so .Many of the more marginal stations would be unable to survive if required to produce so many hours of credible local programmes a week and a smaller number of stations would be more reassuring to an advertiser . There would also be less advertisements helping consumers to be more responsive to those aired. Secondly if clients were to pay higher rates for airtime they would start to think carefully about the content of their commercials and their placement . This would require greater creativity by the agencies to produce better quality and truly unique commercials. Companies would also demand that some kind of poll be taken on who is watching what and importantly who those people might be. Targeting your audience in any media results in better value for money.

The current state of affairs means all the parties involved from consumer to company are being shortchanged. Now where's that mute button ?