If TV advertising messages are a barometer of how Madison Avenue thinks, the COVID-19 pandemic peaked in the minds of ad industry creative departments during the 2nd Quarter of 2020.
The chart summarizes the findings of an analysis of TV creative executions during 2020 on the share of COVID-19 messages. The analysis, which was provided to MediaPost by Nielsen SVP-Product Management Ad Intel Heather Jordan, shows that the COVID-19 campaigns climbed from less than 1% during the 1st Quarter, peaking at 17.9% in the 2nd Quarter and ebbed to 11.4% by the 4th Quarter. The data also reveals how quickly major U.S. TV advertisers and their agencies were able to respond to the crisis, despite challenges to normal TV ad production processes.
Source: Mandese, J. (2021, February 25). COVID-19 Ads Peaked at Nearly A Fifth of All TV Commercials in Q2 2020. MediaDailyNews: MediaPost.