Overwhelmed by Advertising

[Amethyst]

This was true in the broadcast TV era...for a one-hour show, the plot had to be wrapped up in less than 45 minutes. And, remember when there would be a commercial break in a movie, and you'd realize that "something" had to have been cut out? Even if you had not seen the movie in the theater, the cuts were obvious.

I understand the need for advertising to pay for services. What I object to - as someone who's always interested in content, per se - is the banal content of most ads. I actually enjoy a clever ad. I saw one recently that was only 15 seconds. A handsome man holds a ring box and says, "I love Joanne more than anything in the world, and I'm asking your permission to marry her." Camera pulls back to reveal a darling 6-year-old boy with a big, happy grin on his face. The man is asking permission to marry his mom and he's definitely going to grant it!

What blows me away is when you buy or stream a series that's been on TV. An hour show is like 42-45 minutes. ?

 

[scrabbler1]

When I watched Star Trek (original series) on WPIX (Channel 11) here n New York in the 1970s and 1980s, there were some scenes cut from the original episodes in order to squeeze in a few more commercials. It wasn't until years later when I stumbled onto an ad-free station from Scranton PA which aired 3 episodes back-to-back late one night every week. So, not only could I view 3 episodes in just over 2 hours, but I was seeing some scenes I had never seen before. Cool stuff!


But I didn't get to see every episode on that Scranton channel. Over the years, including on the MEtv cable channel (with ads) lately, I have been able to view more episodes with the missing scenes put back in. Also, thanks to some special effects being redone, I get to watch some cool outer space scenes upgraded instead of the fairly cheap, cheesy effects from the 1960s. Still have to put up with the ads, though.

 

[Qs Laptop]

They (Ads) must work though as they are expensive to produce.

^^ This ^^

I am 71 years old and I have never once bought one single thing that came to my attention due to an ad. Nor have ads influenced my desires or opinions of products. So all of this effort has been futile in my case and probably in everybody's case these days. I am amazed that companies are still throwing their money away on these stupid advertising campaigns.

Don't be so sure...

About 10 years ago I had a minor revelation. I'm an avid baseball fan and one day I was watching a baseball game featuring the local team and somewhere during a commercial break I noticed I owned or constantly purchased the very products advertised game after game after game.

Yes, I drove a Ford truck. Yes, I ate Kemp's ice cream. Yes, I had a Carrier furnace and AC unit. Yes, I ate Schweigert hot dogs. Yes, I bought Land O'Lakes milk. Yes, I did most of my grocery shopping at Cub Foods. Yes, I banked at TCF. Yes, I bought my gasoline at Superamerica. On and on it went, right down the list.

I was shocked.

Don't let anyone tell you advertising doesn't work. I think we may be able to resist it in the short term, but cumulatively it worms its way into our brains.

 

[Retiree_Having_Fun]

Not sure what's worse, ads or adblocker warning popups ("I SEE YOU HAVE AD BLOCKER..") Pihole fixes that.

Install PIHOLE on a raspberry pi zero (about $5 plus power cable)- gets rid of most ads on all devices and doesn't trigger ad-blocker warnings.

 

[W2R]

About 10 years ago I had a minor revelation. I'm an avid baseball fan and one day I was watching a baseball game featuring the local team and somewhere during a commercial break I noticed I owned or constantly purchased the very products advertised game after game after game.

How did you know what the very products were that were advertised game after game? Surely you don't WATCH those ads, or listen to them,do you? If so, I think you are very interested in being influenced by ads, compared with most others that I know.

Don't let anyone tell you advertising doesn't work. I think we may be able to resist it in the short term, but cumulatively it worms its way into our brains.

Speak for yourself. But maybe you have a point; maybe most people are lazier than those I know, and just sit there staring at ads and being brainwashed like zombies, rather than making the slight efforts needed to avoid them.

 

[H2ODude]

my personal favorite: the TV that blares advertising at the gas pump. Where I live they are not universally present. At this point, when I find one, I avoid that place unless I'm desperate. I suppose soon they will all have them.
It's quite remarkable really, how the noise effects my functioning. It takes me at least twice as long to read and follow the prompts with that TV blaring...I hate them.

I avoid the station near us that uses these. NOW we have little TV's that start blaring ads at you in the grocery store isles.

We spend a lot of money. But frankly, as I look at our purchasing, I just don't see where what does get through our filters as ads has made any impact on us.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

my personal favorite: the TV that blares advertising at the gas pump. Where I live they are not universally present. At this point, when I find one, I avoid that place unless I'm desperate. I suppose soon they will all have them.
It's quite remarkable really, how the noise effects my functioning. It takes me at least twice as long to read and follow the prompts with that TV blaring...I hate them.

They used to label one of those 8 white buttons (4 on each side of the monitor) with a mute symbol -- the speaker with the line through it. I haven't seen that for a few years now, they're usually all unlabeled, but I just press them all really fast, and one of them almost always mutes it. If not, I've actually turned off the pump before I started and stopped using this one gas station just because of that. Luckily, it's neither on my regular commute nor is it the cheapest. Makes me wonder why more people don't do the same.

 

[Qs Laptop]

How did you know what the very products were that were advertised game after game? Surely you don't WATCH those ads, or listen to them,do you? If so, I think you are very interested in being influenced by ads, compared with most others that I know.

If you watch 50 baseball games over the course of a spring/summer you are going to see commercials. It's a live broadcast, it's difficult to record them and watch them later, and besides I didn't have a DVR back then.

Even though I didn't pay attention to them they are on in the background and like I said, the worm their way into your brain.

Speak for yourself. But maybe you have a point; maybe most people are lazier than those I know, and just sit there staring at ads and being brainwashed like zombies, rather than making the slight efforts needed to avoid them.

I avoid ads as much as I can, I make it a mission to avoid ads. What I'm saying is even trying to avoid them, they can work subliminally.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Was watching a basketball game they other night and one of the players made a three-point basket. Here's the announcer's call on that play:

"And Wiggins drains the three and secures the lead for the Timberwolves. And you can secure your financial future with Securian Financial Services. Wolves are up 100-97 and here come the Spurs..."

How are you supposed to avoid that ad?

 

[scrabbler1]

my personal favorite: the TV that blares advertising at the gas pump. Where I live they are not universally present. At this point, when I find one, I avoid that place unless I'm desperate. I suppose soon they will all have them.
It's quite remarkable really, how the noise effects my functioning. It takes me at least twice as long to read and follow the prompts with that TV blaring...I hate them.

Remember that "Pump Cast" bit on The Tonight Show when Jay Leno was hosting it, when the TV commentator would interact with the customer at the gas pump?

 

[John Galt III]

They had the blasting TV ads at a some gas stations around here a few years ago, but now the TVs are gone, thank goodness.