"Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny." -- unknown

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results - Albert Einstein

commercials suck
June 25, 2006 - 9:24 am

now, with the radio.. it doesn't bother me as much. why? i don't pay for the radio.. so someone has to.

i do, however, pay for tv.

yes, i know all about the economics of the situation and that, more than most people would like to believe, that the point of tv isn't to entertain, but to sell. tv shows are created to get people, sure enough. but what happens if a show does something the advertisers don't like? why they don't support the show.. and network/creater of the show gives in and does what the advertisers want. nevermind what the people watching the show would like to see.

another example is that as soon as one station gets a "hit" show and starts to rake in the advetising cash.. all the other stations try to jump on board. they want more viewers... why? so they can make more off the ads. ad rates are tied heavily to viewers.

anyway. enough of that.

the trouble is.. that with commercials, they greatly decrease my enjoyment. a "good" movie is on and so i'll start to watch. sure they switch some words, chop up a scene.. but kiddies might be watch so, whatever. sure enough, at the most annoying time possible, the screen fades to black and the commercials start.

sit through the first batch.. and then when the second batch starts, you realize that 50% or more are the exact same ones they showed last time. the third batch.. is more of the same. in fact, some commercials will be on every single f'ing break.

i probably wouldn't care so much.. if they didn't do this. no, i won't call geico. i'm sick of the green little bastard talking in whatever english accent it is he has. no, i won't as my doctor about whatever pill you're pushing -- why? you won't even tell me what it does.

what really gets me is that i've read all about saturation points with ads -- what i'm talking about is a very real thing. if you hear/see something too much, it turns you off. you can google around about it, but you probably know from your own experience it's true.

this.. this is why i love to watch world cup soccer. 45 minutes times 2 of no commercials. i don't much care who's playing or who wins.

why arn't american sports like this? surely you can see that a game (be it football, baseball, hockey, whatever..) would be a heck of a lot better without the breaks.

why don't they? money.

what happens now? commercials come on.. and i channel surf. i find something else. sometimes i go back, it all depends on what i find. in a rather ironic way, commercials lose viewers.. at least i hope i'm not the only one.

with lost, at least they tried something new towards the end -- fake ads with sites for people to go to. good for them. i didn't check out a single site.

why am i blathering on about this? i've no idea. i think it's because.. with firefox, i block all the ads i see online. i block them, i remove them.. i control what i see. i like that.

with the radio, i'll just play a cd. not so much on variety there.. but still, a choice.

with tv, not so much. you're just screwed. tivo offers some choice, and you'll read/hear about companies being pissed you can skip commercials and talk of ways to stop that. again.. the point of the show you're watching isn't to entertain you, it's to get you to buy something.

the net maybe changing soon to. talk of new types of ads are bubbling about.. fees to access differnt sites..

anyway. i need.. to go and read some work stuff. wholey fuck do i have a lot of stuff to read.