As I’ve aged (like a fine wine, of course), I have found that I have started picking up some of the stereotypical behavior of old folks, such as running slower and napping more. I have also found that I find more things annoying. I used to infer that was because there are, in fact, more annoying things. However, I am willing to consider that I am suffering from the same syndrome that causes folks to yell “get off my lawn, you damn kids.”
One thing that has triggered my inner grump is advertising. Almost no one likes it, but I have found certain things especially annoying. One is something almost everyone finds aggravating: when commercials jack up the volume. I’ve noticed this most when watching stuff online, such as the Daily Show or the Colbert Report. I’ll barely be able to hear Jon Stewart’s witty liberalisms when suddenly I will be deafened by the roar of someone pitching Rogaine or some new smart phone. Another is that such inserted ads often seem to screw up the show’s playback. For example, an ad for a car might take over and run another Flash app, then miserably fail to hand control back to the episode I am trying to watch. This, as one might imagine, hardly inspires me to buy the product that has just annoyed me.
One type of ad is one that I find more odd than annoying. It is the ad within the ad. For example, I noticed that some previews (which are just ads) for games will require me to watch the preview for another game before I can watch that preview. In some cases, Game A’s preview will have an ad for game B, while B’s preview will have an ad for game B. Maybe the ad business is so bad that even advertisers have to sell ad space in their ads. I suspect this might lead to some sort of infinite regress of advertising in which for each ad n you must watch another ad, n+1, before you can see n.
My overall view is that I recognize that advertising is how I am able to get all kinds of stuff, like TV shows, for “free”: in return for being exposed to the ads, I get something I want. The advertisers sell stuff and the folks who sell advertising time/space get money. So, everyone sort of wins. Of course, the whole point of advertising is to make the consumer want to buy products. However, these sorts of advertising approaches/problems make me less likely to buy since they make me feel annoyance. So, advertisers, be less annoying.
Nick Byrd says
July 18, 2011 at 11:39 amI noticed you tagged TiVo and DVR. I thought you might mention, somehow, that demand for products like TiVo and DVR is at least partially a result of people wanting to watch TV without commercials. It is a high price to pay, but (even as a twenty-something), I’m with you: advertising is the bane of print and video medias’ existence. If I had the disposable income, I would pay to get rid of advertising in a heartbeat.
FRE says
July 18, 2011 at 1:34 pmI also find TV commercials annoying. It’s not only the loudness, but also the nature of them. They are often delivered in a tone that would be more appropriate for a coach of a children’s soccer team. Commercials are delivered as if the content were beyond exciting and almost regardless of what is being promoted, they seem to assume that the audience is brainless. In talking to others, I’ve learned that I am not the only person who would avoid buying products for which the commercials are especially annoying.
I’ve actually stopped watching some programs because of the extreme frequency of commercials. I’ve also shut off the TV set in the middle of some programs when I’ve realized how much of my time was being spent listening to commercials. Although I haven’t actually timed them, it seems as though sometimes almost half of the program time is devoted to commercials.
It HAS become worse through the years. In addition to becoming ever more bombasic, more and more are in gross bad taste. Next I suppose that there will be explicit demonstrations of why one brand of toilet paper is better than another; they’ve already come close to doing that. After that, they will have explicit demonstrations of how to use condoms.
frk says
July 19, 2011 at 8:27 am“almost half of the program time is devoted to commercials”
Closer to 2/3, actually. Forty mins. of actual programming in an hour. 20 mins. in 1/2 hr.
Edward Carney says
July 18, 2011 at 10:20 pmAfter reading this post, I scrolled back up and confirmed that no, Andy Rooney had not been given a byline as guest blogger. Correct this.
magus71 says
July 19, 2011 at 12:41 amI’ve solved the television ad problem: I don’t watch tv anymore, except sports. Not even the news.
FRE says
July 19, 2011 at 12:56 amThat’s one way; I know people who don’t even own a TV set.
I watch PBS and sometimes non-PBS news programs. Most of the rest is just junk for the hoi polloi, not for elitists like us.
magus71 says
July 19, 2011 at 11:27 amYes-I’d watch Frontline. But I’m not back in swing with the schedule after returning to Germany.
WTP says
July 19, 2011 at 11:59 am“…just junk for the hoi polloi, not for elitists like us” That is meant to be a joke, right? I have to ask as it’s hard to take seriously how philosophers take themselves so seriously.
PBS ain’t what it used to be. The Red Green Show? Comedy for kind of people who haven’t the ability to understand what was so charming about that Arnold on Green Acres. The kind of people who think John Williams is high-brow. Even their news division is going downhill.
Television isn’t much different than the internet, when you consider what is out here. Not much more worthwhile than what a bunch of elitist philosophers have to say, for that matter.