Hoover Hoses ABC, Pulls Ads In Protest Over Soap Cancellations
I’ll tell you what: I’m going to buy a Hoover vacuum cleaner today. The company is pulling its ads from ABC in protest over the cancellations of “One Life to Live” and “All My Children.” It’s a bold statement for an advertiser to take such a position. But good for Brian Kirkendall, VP of marketing for Hoover. He’s like Don Draper taking out his ad on “Mad Men” against smoking. Kirkendall obviously sees what’s coming at ABC: No Regis or Oprah, no two hour block of soaps to which viewers were loyal. Other advertisers should hop on board. ABC has left you all with a mess. (Just the way CBS has done by replacing “As the World Turns” with dreck.) The curious thing is that ABC always put a lot of money and time into soap promotion; CBS did not. For ABC to turn against its audience may become a historic mistake. Here’s the Facebook posting from Hoover:
To all the loyal ABC soap fans,
I want you to know from me personally that we hear you loud and clear. My wife and mother are both passionate viewers of All My Children and One Life to Live, as are many of my colleagues here at Hoover. We were and are as disappointed with this news as you are.
In fact, we will discontinue our advertising with ABC this Friday, 4/22. We’re making every attempt to pull our spots from these programs sooner.
Because we feel that’s not enough, we also want to help get your voice heard with ABC. So, we’ve set up a special email address, SaveTheSoaps@Hoover.com, to help pull together the mass emotional outpouring of support for our beloved ABC soaps and get it to our contacts at ABC. Please, send your emails to us at SaveTheSoaps@Hoover.com, and we’ll get every, single last one of them to ABC.
We’re 150% committed to doing what matters most to you – so if there’s anything else we can do to help or you have any ideas, please email this address, and we will respond to you personally.
Thank you for standing up for what matters to you! We need more of that in this world.
Brian Kirkendall
Vice President of Marketing
Hoover
Here’s a HUGE opportunity for netflix or amazon. Start a soaps group and keep them going and make the shows available online only.
Well done Hoover!
I cant remember the last time a company actually did something for someone else. Great way to stand up for REAL TV, not reality TV!
Susan Mauntel, I love OLTL. It still the best Daytime Soap on tv, also the best written and the best acted.
Thank you Hoover. I hope we can help keep One Life TO Live on the air.Have watched for years and LOVE it.Will continue to purchase Hoover.
Let it go the soaps are way past their prime
Well done, Mr. Kirkendall! We the People (fans of OLTL for years) are really angry at the preemptory announcement! Thanks for the SaveTheSoaps@Hoover.com address where we can collectively address our grievances. Soaps have been the staple story telling by REAL ACTORS for
so long, and the only drama on TV. It’s impossible to know where the many fans will get this kind of theater ever again. Yours, Susan
Well done, Mr. Kirkendall! We the People (fans of OLTL for years) are really angry at the preemptory announcement! Thanks for the SaveTheSoaps@Hoover.com address where we can collectively address our grievances. Soaps have been the staple story telling by REAL ACTORS for
so long, and the only drama on TV. It’s impossible to know where the many fans will get this kind of theater ever again. Yours, Susan
Bring the soaps back!!! Especially One Life to Live!!!!
Brian Kirkendall is a genius. With one gesture he’s saved a fortune in advertising while creating amazing goodwill for his company by cutting out the irritating middleman, ABC/Disney, and going direct to Hoover’s target audience, women with homes to clean.
There is nothing as stubborn or as loyal as a soap fan, btw.
Don’t mess with soap fans. We are tired of them cancelling our shows.
Way to go Hoover! This is smart marketing. Hoover takes a stand and gains consumers.
Hopefully, ABC will take notice of fan protests.
Yes, the ratings for soaps are down but that is a result of corporate malfeasance. ABC Daytime could have done a better job of hiring writers and promoting both shows. One Life to Live comes in under budget and is profitable. It’s considered by many to be ABC’s best written show.
Well, we have been needing a new vacuum cleaner and I have been putting off buying a “Hoover” which I have wanted for years as I lost my job and it costs a little more (at least for the one I want), but after reading, this, I am going to go out and get it………..I know at least I will prob have the Hoover vacuum forever and if not, could get it fixed unlike the “Fantom” , My husband purchased over Tv when it came out……….worked just great until it broke and then they went out of business so no one to fix………Hoover has been around forever…….heck, I had my Mom’s old Hoover until I was in my mid twenties and it still worked……..Thank You Hoover !!