Last week Michael Field posted an article about their local operator advertising their pinball, dart, pool, and foosball leagues on TV.  I think that operator deserves a lot of applause. When I was in Pittsburgh this weekend, I was talking to a friend about what it costs to advertise on TV.  While it may cost quite a bit to advertise on the network stations, it apparently costs less than $5.00 per 30-second slot on many cable channels, including stations like MTV, USA Network, Discovery Channel, for a local viewing audience. So that made me wonder; why do manufacturers and operators never advertise on TV?   Because pinball is an addictive sport, continuous advertising may not be necessary.  But we keep hearing about the market being 'slow', which means they need to attract more p_layer_s.   I often meet people who say I've played pinball before.  When I ask when was the last time they played, it is often more than a year ago ... yet they said they really enjoyed playing! So why are they not playing?  I've gotten several answers, but 'lack of money' was rarely one of them.  The two most popular answers I got are,     1) It never really crossed my mind to go out and play ... I only played         if I happened to be where there is a machine.     2) I don't know where to play. TV advertising by the operators and/or manufacturers might make a big difference in getting those people to play more regularly.   So why don't they advertise?   I think that it is because most operators are too stingy, and don't know anything about the word investment .  I.e. spend a little money now to make lots of money later. If they did, then they would spent a bit more time maintaining machines! Without advertising, they are completely living off existing p_layer_s, never attracting new p_layer_s.  And since existing p_layer_s are getting better, revenue will obviously go down.  That might be why they are so concerned with ball time rising!   Why lower it?  Instead, attract those novices that will lower it.  But without advertising, that won't happen. The only bit of advertising I ever see is on flyers ... but I see the flyers only because I make a trip to a local distributor, or one of my friends does. It isn't just the operators that manufacturers have to convince ... it's the end-of-the-line; the p_layer_s.  If the p_layer_s don't play, the operators won't buy.  So why isn't such 'flyers' advertising directed towards the p_layer_s?  If the p_layer_s start demanding new machines, then the operators will definitely start buying them!  The current pool of people able to do word-of-mouth advertising just isn't large enough for an entire industry to rely on it. Dave