Actually, having been in music retail for 30 years plus, I'd say Donny is pretty close to the truth.

I don't think there is that much more understanding or knowledge especially about mid or high end arranger keyboards than there ever was. Why? Go to the large majority of music stores, including Guitar Center and you won't find even any mid range arrangers, unless you're in a very large major city. And if you do, 9 times out of 10 the people selling them don't know what to do when once it's turned on. Result, low public exposure and understanding of arrangers.

Here in the Pensacola area there is a surrounding population of 400,000 and I doubt the local GC will even carry a PSR-S500.

So, I think what the companies are doing is to increase the awareness of what's out there in the top of the line models as opposed to the cheapie low end which is what most people think of because that's all they see, to see if it boost's their sales or not. After a while they will analyze sales vs advertising expenses, figure out what may have helped, what didn't and make adjustments. It will be interesting to see if these ads continue over an extended period of time. That is what will tell the story

Scott