TV commercials assault

Remove all ads!

When I moved into my apartment, I had trouble with the local cable provider. They also provide the TV & radio licenses. Their misleading contract meant that I'd be paying over 60 euros/month for the whole package. I didn't sign anything, and cancelled my TV license as soon as possible.
I was cut off from TV for a while, and it didn't bother me much. I get most of my entertainment from the computer anyway. But after a month or two, my cable was reconnected, and I could watch TV again. People tell me that it's a lucky break, the result of some mistake made at the company. But I suspect that the mass media is desperately trying to keep people interested in TV, to uphold established systems, such as commercialism.
When I tell people that I get most of my news from internet, I get an automatic cliché reply: "Oh be careful, there's a lot of misinformation on the internet."
Of course there's misinformation on the internet. But it only illustrates how people still think that the established media doesn't seek to intentionally misinform people.
It's going to be a difficult road, as people on internet clash, due to brainwashing, misinformation, and just the variety of bizarre misconceptions out there. But the internet is a good arena to fight the battle for truth.It has a much better chance of informing you properly, than some authoritative figure on TV telling you exactly what's what.
On the topic of commercials, I'd say the general message is one of distraction. If you sit still and think properly, you'll make wise decisions, and adjust your purchases to your thoughtful decisions. If you're an emotional, impulsive, thoughtless moron, you're more likely to spend lots of money on useless things. 'I want it!' 'Just do it.' 'I'm loving it.'
As you can hear, I rarely watch TV either.

 

I agree completely. About the only things I watch "live" anymore are sporting events, because it's not nearly as fun to watch something when you already know of the result...

 

All I can say is the commercials that are aired during the SuperBowl are pretty darn funny. Though I couldn't even tell you about the products or who aired them.

 

Yeah, Super Bowl ads are pretty much awesome...but that's a once a year kind of thing. Since this past Super Bowl, I've only seen the tire ad that has the moon rover zipping around to the tune of Cypress Hill only once...and it was this past month.

I haven't seen any of the other ads that I remember seeing during the Super Bowl since.

 

The Palm commercial with the woman walking down the street in a red dress ... whoa ... I could be assaulted by her.

 

You're not strong enough to defend yourself against a woman?

 

Depends on the woman.

 

I watch very little TV these days and that mostly when visiting my cousin who is a channel switcher. TV commercials are very handy for taking a break to get a drink, a snack etc. I don't think I have actually seen or heard a TV commercial in several years.

 

Yes I can. The basic purpose of all commercials is to make me unhappy with myself as I am. Seriously, if they want me to buy something, it must mean I want that something, which means I'm not content with what I already have.

The best commercials do this in a gentle, 'If you happen to want this very nice thing' sort of way, while at the same time making you remember the product/service name and think highly of the company that provides it.
For example, there's a Hefty (tm) trash bags commercial out at the moment, where various smelly food items pop up in a kitchen to the words "Stinky, Stinky, Stinky, Stinky" from deep voices. In response, four Hefty bags jump up an 'eat' the items, to the words "Hefty, Hefty, Hefty, Hefty" from the same voices. It's not too loud, it's cute in a childish way, it makes me remember the product, and the company, and not in any way feel bad about myself, or feel unreasonable expectations about the product. That's a good commercial.

Most commercials these days do it in a 'You're a fat, lazy, stupid piece of sh*t right now, but buy this and you'll be sexy, smart, and successful!' sort of way, and leave me with a bad taste in my mouth for the company, and no real memory of exactly what it is they were advertizing. There are too many to name.

And then, there are a few that come in between. There's one running right now with the song "Pure Imagination" from Willy Wonka playing, while stick-figure, paper monsters and aliens wander the streets of the city. It's beautiful, fun, creative, and non-offensive, but I have no idea who's behind it or what they're advertizing, other than 'imagination'.

 

I also recently read an interesting piece of why commercials are considerably louder than the shows. The rule on the volume of commercials is that you cannot broadcast a commercial any louder than the loudest portion of the show. What that means in practice is that the commercials are broadcast at the decibel level of the car chase scene.

 

The Orkin commercials are funny. And those Jack Link's commercials featuring bigfoot were good.

 

Interesting. That could be part of the reason why every talk show has a clapping chorus, telling you when you should be laughing. I'd be so lost without those guys guiding me through it.

I forget where i heard it, but supposedly the goal of the most villainous commercials is basically just flashing their logo constantly. The more you see it, the more it's anchored in your brain and the more likely you are to recall it when out to buy something. "Hey i know this brand!" without bothering to recall (maybe our brain just aren't wired that way) WHY it's so familiar. Makes sense really, people in general aren't all that interested in our thought origins.

Pandora's box opened right there. David Icke is happy.
It's a sloth appeal and sheep mentality IMO. People are happy with "they're the bad guys, we're the good guys" and mass media is all too happy to present the "them, not us" the bad guys. All you need to get this info is stare at a screen for a time. Going online is a chore. You've all these conflicting information, most of whose validity can be put in question. A lot more browsing, time spent and thought involved to keep on track. Why, just turn on TV, they'll tell you what you should believe, not a problem.

 

I enjoy the cleverness of some commercials. Others annoy me. For the most part, though, I just hit the mute button and post on SP or something while I wait for the show I was watching to come back on. When I had a PVR, I recorded a lot of stuff and just hit the FF to get to the show again. Problem solved.

 

I actually work right next to the guys that produce the commercials for the company I work at. As strange as it sounds, the vast masses of commercials out there are widely regarded as the utter failures I've been reading about here.

It's just that people in general have rather limited attention spans, and there's just too many companies trying to "reach out" to their customers, that anything short of ground-breaking creations is doomed to become a failure. Yet no company can survive for long without any marketing whatsoever.

The current working hypothesis is that the generic mass marketing such as TV ads is going to commit suicide (hooray!) but smart product placement, company-induced word-of-mouth (cf. Will it Blend?) and similar, more subtle methods will take its place. Soon enough, it'll take exceptional awareness skills to even REALIZE you're being spoon-fed with someone else's thoughts. Better or worse, time will show.