Adverts – Part III
The aspect of advertizing on which I’m fixating today is something that has slowly crept into every TV channel’s everyday behaviour. Constant self-promotion. Why do so many of these stations feel it is necessary to display their logo on screen at all times? Are we considered SO stupid that we are likely to forget which channel we are watching? Is it some attempt to brand everything appearing on the screen as their property? I just don’t understand the though process behind it. Assuming that these people have the capacity for thought, of course.
I’ve often heard people joking that ad breaks last so long that, by the time the show resumes, they’ve forgotten what they’re watching. However, the actual amount of time taken up by the break isn’t really what annoys me. I find it a little crappy that 30 minute programs are automatically given 40 minute slots on most channels now, but what actually gets to me is the addition of more and more new, unnecessary elements to that 10 minute break.
As the show you’re watching cuts to break – a process in which there is absolutely no care taken by the way. These channels just chop the shows up arbitrarily, regardless of whether a scene is actually ending or not – the first thing we get is the “This program is brought to you by …” message. It seems that almost no program can be televized anymore without some kind of tenuously-linked and/or insulting product being paraded before the viewer as it’s “sponsor“. How exactly a manufacturer of beer can be the “sponsor” of a TV show that was wholly created 20 years ago by the BBC, I’ve no idea. But this is what they tell us, so we have to just accept it. The insulting aspect comes with the choice of product, as it relates to the assumptions the channel are making about it’s viewers, but this is something I’ve ranted on before.
Once we’ve endured the sponsorship message, we are treated to a 1 second flash of the TV station’s logo. Clearly, this is included just in case you haven’t noticed the logo on the screen all through the program you’re watching AND have completely forgotten which channel you selected in order to watch the show in the first place.
Then, we have a couple of adverts for other shows on the channel. The same 2 adverts for the same 2 shows that they have been pedalling in every ad break, during every show, every day for as long as you can fucking remember. Basically, if you’ve been tuned to this channel for more than 6 minutes at any point in the last couple of weeks, you know all too well when these shows are on … and you CAN’T FUCKING WAIT for them to be on … just so the adverts for these episodes will finally stop!
Then another 1 second flash of the logo – again, in case we forgot – and finally, we’re into the irritating, condescending, insulting and patronizing shit that is the actual adverts.
And don’t forget – you have the whole process to look forward to again after these shitty products have been shoved down your throat, as it is repeated in reverse, creating some kind of evil video palindrome seemingly designed with the sole intention of annoying the shit out of the viewers to the point of psychosis.
And they all wonder why we hate them.
Of course, the irony is that people tend to sit with the remote control close at hand while watching TV these days anyway – for one of 2 reasons:
- So you can flick to something else while the adverts are on.
- So you can fast-forward through the adverts – as you recorded the show with the sole PURPOSE of skipping them.
Either way, it still perplexes me that every commercial TV station obsesses over their use of adverts, with the assumption that people are actually watching them! It’s yet another example of people’s ego and self importance telling them that they are as important as they think they should be, despite the massive evidence to the contrary. Poor, deluded bastards.
MisterShouty 