Advertising Professional Flag Football
We have several streaming services on our Roku player, and my favorite is Pluto TV. They have a huge amount of free content with commercials. Nice.
All was going fine until I noticed a giant professional flag football (American football, not soccer) advertising campaign across all our streaming services. I do not watch much TV, but I still encountered over ten commercials a day. It lasted three solid weeks, and yes, even our paid streaming services had commercials. Boo!
You may recall playing this sport in your high school or junior high gym class. The idea is that the sport uses the same football rules but no tackling, thus everybody can play without serious injury. To me, this was just one of many gym activities, and after high school I had no interest. Others agreed, and I have never seen adults playing it or talking about it.
Well, some very rich people (we know this because they paid $$$$ for advertisements) want to change our minds by creating a professional flag football league. Their hook? Added excitement without the violence. Meaning the players will run faster because they lack protective padding, leading to more creative play. Plus, they are going after a more sophisticated audience who does not enjoy seeing players getting hurt.
Added to the mix are female players, but it was unclear whether the teams would be coed or have their own league. I believe the NFL’s goal was to enter a new market, much like how the WNBA is expanding basketball.
All was going fine until I noticed a giant professional flag football (American football, not soccer) advertising campaign across all our streaming services. I do not watch much TV, but I still encountered over ten commercials a day. It lasted three solid weeks, and yes, even our paid streaming services had commercials. Boo!
You may recall playing this sport in your high school or junior high gym class. The idea is that the sport uses the same football rules but no tackling, thus everybody can play without serious injury. To me, this was just one of many gym activities, and after high school I had no interest. Others agreed, and I have never seen adults playing it or talking about it.
Well, some very rich people (we know this because they paid $$$$ for advertisements) want to change our minds by creating a professional flag football league. Their hook? Added excitement without the violence. Meaning the players will run faster because they lack protective padding, leading to more creative play. Plus, they are going after a more sophisticated audience who does not enjoy seeing players getting hurt.
Added to the mix are female players, but it was unclear whether the teams would be coed or have their own league. I believe the NFL’s goal was to enter a new market, much like how the WNBA is expanding basketball.
What do I think of this? The advertisements were just more noise in my crowded life, and I put a lot of effort into ignoring them. Then something took hold in my bonkers mind. This immense effort made me think about my own book marketing efforts. “Wow, the NFL is spending gobs of money; I bet they will be successful. Well, if they can make something silly like flag football profitable, then it should be possible for me to get more book sales.”
My advertising budget? Err… About 10 hours per week and about $5 for expenses. In contrast, I imagine running a single flag football commercial on an obscure Pluto TV channel to reach people who aren’t even watching it costs a lot of money. I bet the NFL spent over $200M, which divided down means at least $50 on me. Hey, for $50, they could have skipped the commercials, paid me, and I would have watched the first 30 minutes of their first game. Go Flag Football!
Still, watching dump trucks of money trying to get a nobody like me to warm up to a new sports entertainment led me to understand that if I ever want to be successful, I need to up my game (yes, a sports reference).
The issue is that I have read many articles about the book market rapidly shrinking and the ever-expanding firehose of new authors releasing new books every day. Plus, my personal pet peeve is publishers re-releasing classic books in the “new books” section. Stay in your own swim lane (another sports reference).
Watching the slick commercials over and over felt like a wake-up call, but what should I do? Do what they did and empty my savings account on TV advertisements? A little more realistically, it would be to pay a modest sum to a popular YouTube influencer to promote my work. Not feeling that. Pay for advertisements on book websites? Not sure about that. Billboards or magazine advertisements? Too pricy. Hire an advertising company? They seem like crooks.
I do not know what the correct advertising path is, but those endless commercials lit a fire in my belly. So, I am going to find something that will work. Stay tuned.
You’re the best -Bill
August 26, 2026
My advertising budget? Err… About 10 hours per week and about $5 for expenses. In contrast, I imagine running a single flag football commercial on an obscure Pluto TV channel to reach people who aren’t even watching it costs a lot of money. I bet the NFL spent over $200M, which divided down means at least $50 on me. Hey, for $50, they could have skipped the commercials, paid me, and I would have watched the first 30 minutes of their first game. Go Flag Football!
Still, watching dump trucks of money trying to get a nobody like me to warm up to a new sports entertainment led me to understand that if I ever want to be successful, I need to up my game (yes, a sports reference).
The issue is that I have read many articles about the book market rapidly shrinking and the ever-expanding firehose of new authors releasing new books every day. Plus, my personal pet peeve is publishers re-releasing classic books in the “new books” section. Stay in your own swim lane (another sports reference).
Watching the slick commercials over and over felt like a wake-up call, but what should I do? Do what they did and empty my savings account on TV advertisements? A little more realistically, it would be to pay a modest sum to a popular YouTube influencer to promote my work. Not feeling that. Pay for advertisements on book websites? Not sure about that. Billboards or magazine advertisements? Too pricy. Hire an advertising company? They seem like crooks.
I do not know what the correct advertising path is, but those endless commercials lit a fire in my belly. So, I am going to find something that will work. Stay tuned.
You’re the best -Bill
August 26, 2026
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