Love in the Afternoon (advertising campaign)
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"Love in the Afternoon" was a well-known advertising campaign used by ABC to market its soap operas in the form of newspaper advertisements and television commercials. Focusing on the highly tormented love lives of its main characters, "Love in the Afternoon" was the chief ad campaign for ABC's daytime lineup from 1975 until 1985.
The idea of marketing soaps as "Love in the Afternoon" was not a unique concept, as rival network NBC had produced television advertisements promoting their popular couples under the "Love in the Afternoon" banner in 1974. (video clip, registration req'd) ABC decided to pursue their own "Love in the Afternoon" advertisements when NBC abandoned their campaign.
The "Love in the Afternoon" campaign was only a moderate success in the late 1970s; it finally took off in 1980 and 1981 by advertising the wildly popular romance of Luke and Laura on General Hospital. [1] The campaign also found success in promoting secondary – but still popular – couples on another popular ABC serial, All My Children, such as Cliff and Nina, Greg and Jenny, and Jesse and Angie. Other shows profiled in "Love in the Afternoon" advertisements included One Life to Live, Loving, Ryan's Hope, and The Edge of Night.
In 1983, ABC briefly altered the "Love in the Afternoon" commercials to advertise "Loving in the morning," a nod to its then-new serial, Loving, which premiered in a late morning timeslot. [2] After a few months, the regular "Love in the Afternoon" commercials resumed.
Over twenty years after the commercials ended production, "Love in the Afternoon" is a term used to describe the stories told on soap operas, irrespective of network affiliation.
[edit] Trivia
- A sketch on the children's television series Sesame Street was named "School in the Afternoon," a pun on the "Love in the Afternoon" title.
