I have seen a crud load of commercials lately. Amongst the million runs of 1-800-Credit-Report.com, Progressive, and other spam ads, I have noticed that this area has a crud load of commercials for restaurants that are NO WHERE NEAR HERE.

So I live in Toms River. And my parents live in Freehold. It's a good 20-40 minute drive, which I make daily for work. You'd think that if these commercials air, that their would be some of these restaurants in the area... Yeah, no.

So let's start simple, these actually exist. I just have to be way motivated.
Subway- 15 miles away
Applebees- 15 miles away (There are 2 within 2 miles though)
Taco Bell and Kentucky Fried Chicken- they say 3 miles away but apparently mapquest cannot count.

Really, that's just me whining. But how about this...

We have commercials for Sonic's and Joe's Crab Shack.

Well... I finally found a Joe's Crab Shack... In another county... three counties over really in Lawrenceville-- about an hour and a half away. Why does Comcast and IO show me this place then? I thought marketing was regional?

Alright, so if I really want lobster I might go visit red lobster, but how bout Sonic? I've lived in Central/South Jersey ten years and been annoyed by these commercials. There was no Sonic in NJ... In fact, the closest was in Delaware. Anyhow, ten years later there is finally a sign for a Sonic's. It's still twenty minutes away but there is a sign... for a year now. Apparently, one is in Bensalem, PA... according to them.. 38.1 miles away... Mapquest says 1.5 hours...


Perhaps my marketing professors were wrong when they said that we should market to a target audience. You would think that somehow involves the actual region.