Side Effect Of Consolidation?

[Roger Kirk]

We've all witnessed the discussions of alleged "sameness" pervading 
playlists and formats from market to market.  Some stations even have 
their air staff track shows for stations in other markets.

Today, I heard a commercial for a new product on BZ that copies (almost 
word for word) an existing commercial for an entirely different product.

The spot was for Pro-Active (sp) Acne Medication.  It features a person 
calling the company asking about their "free offer" and asking "so, 
what's the catch?"  The operator says "There Is No Catch" and goes on to 
say that they're "so confident you'll be satisfied that their offering 
it free"  Immediately followed by "Oh, there IS one thing..." to which 
the caller says "Ah Ha , I knew there was a catch"  and so on...

This exact same script has been used for the past few months by Rosetta 
Stone Language Learning CDs.

Has radio become so homogenized and lacking in originality that a good 
commercial script is now being recycled over and over?  Just unplug 
product A & its features and plug in Product B and its features?  Nobody 
will ever notice.
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