I hate commercials

[Alien826]

Not the old style static commercials, like a sheet stuck to a wall.

I started to hate them when they first appeared on TV, with their stupid jingles, half-truths, and endless repetition.

They've got worse over the years as advertisers have learned how press our buttons more successfully.

I try to avoid them as much as possible, and I will pay for an ad-free TV channel if I have to. If I'm watching a channel with commercials, I mute the sound when they are on. I find that reduces the annoyance significantly. I'd turn off the picture too, but I need to know when they are over. On the Internet, I use an ad-blocker. If the channel won't let me use the blocker, fair enough, I'll look for the content elsewhere. On the radio, I turn the sound down until I can just hear the sound but not make out the words. There is a certain cadence to commercials that I can recognize.

To all advertisers ... I understand that you need to let people know that you have something to sell. That's fine, just tell me that, once if possible, not over and over, sometimes several times in the same commercial break. Don't insult my intelligence. I see through your emotional tricks and lies. Oh, and don't turn the sound up. Or shout at me. All these things make me less likely to buy your product.

 

[Eddi]

I will pay for an ad-free TV channel if I have to.

You can pay for ad-free RF you know?

 

[Mock Turtle]

You can pay for ad-free RF you know?

No need. One can do it without paying - but I decided I liked the place enough to pay.

 

[Mock Turtle]

Not the old style static commercials, like a sheet stuck to a wall.

I started to hate them when they first appeared on TV, with their stupid jingles, half-truths, and endless repetition.

They've got worse over the years as advertisers have learned how press our buttons more successfully.

I try to avoid them as much as possible, and I will pay for an ad-free TV channel if I have to. If I'm watching a channel with commercials, I mute the sound when they are on. I find that reduces the annoyance significantly. I'd turn off the picture too, but I need to know when they are over. On the Internet, I use an ad-blocker. If the channel won't let me use the blocker, fair enough, I'll look for the content elsewhere. On the radio, I turn the sound down until I can just hear the sound but not make out the words. There is a certain cadence to commercials that I can recognize.

To all advertisers ... I understand that you need to let people know that you have something to sell. That's fine, just tell me that, once if possible, not over and over, sometimes several times in the same commercial break. Don't insult my intelligence. I see through your emotional tricks and lies. Oh, and don't turn the sound up. Or shout at me. All these things make me less likely to buy your product.

And the trouble with TV adverts is that they come more frequently over time so as to be almost every 10 minutes or so. I mute them all too. I don't get these people when the effects of their insistence is to make more and more people becoming advert-haters. Just bonkers.

 

[Exaltist Ethan]

Modern live TV streaming allows you to watch anything you recorded and fast forward through the commercials. Except for Philo... Anyways, unless you want live TV, TV at that is being shown at that very moment, which honestly only really matters in news and sports, you don't need to see the commercials. On Demand programming still includes unskippable commercials on YouTube TV. It's frustrating, knowing that I pay $65 for over a hundred channels plus $15 more for HBO, I feel like at that price I should be able to watch anything I want without advertisements.

While it is a steep price, I've learned that I can share this service with my four closest friends and family, which ultimately makes the whole experience worth it. My parents used to pay hundreds for me to keep satellite and cable back when we had it, embarrassingly, when my mom once canceled satellite, when I was a tween, I cried so much until she renewed her contract. The very least I can do in this new age of streaming is to give them what they gave me back, even if they prefer ad-free services like Netflix and Amazon Prime.

 

[Alien826]

You can pay for ad-free RF you know?

I don't see ads on RF. Must be my ad blocker.

 

[Alien826]

Modern live TV streaming allows you to watch anything you recorded and fast forward through the commercials. Except for Philo... Anyways, unless you want live TV, TV at that is being shown at that very moment, which honestly only really matters in news and sports, you don't need to see the commercials. On Demand programming still includes unskippable commercials on YouTube TV. It's frustrating, knowing that I pay $65 for over a hundred channels plus $15 more for HBO, I feel like at that price I should be able to watch anything I want without advertisements.

Yes, though it's not so easy on Streaming TV. You get a series of little boxes going past at the bottom and you have to watch for the beginning of the programming and I often get it wrong and have to move forward and back .... I often just mute it.

I've seen unskippable commercials, and not on YouTube.

Sounds like Sling TV? Maybe not if you can get HBO. I had to get it separately. How many channels do you actually watch? Very few in my case.

While it is a steep price, I've learned that I can share this service with my four closest friends and family, which ultimately makes the whole experience worth it. My parents used to pay hundreds for me to keep satellite and cable back when we had it, embarrassingly, when my mom once canceled satellite, when I was a tween, I cried so much until she renewed her contract. The very least I can do in this new age of streaming is to give them what they gave me back, even if they prefer ad-free services like Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Yes. When I was a kid we didn't have TV ....

 

[Vinayaka]

I don't mind commercials. They're an interesting sociological study at how capitalism can distort facts to make it seem like they're doing something they're not. I'm rarely affected by them, and find a laugh or two sometimes at their obvious stupid suggestions. It makes me wonder at who writes them, and what did they think that would work?

I do find some mildly annoying, but only because of their jingles. The best ones are downright creative or funny.

 

[Stevicus]

Not the old style static commercials, like a sheet stuck to a wall.

I started to hate them when they first appeared on TV, with their stupid jingles, half-truths, and endless repetition.

They've got worse over the years as advertisers have learned how press our buttons more successfully.

I try to avoid them as much as possible, and I will pay for an ad-free TV channel if I have to. If I'm watching a channel with commercials, I mute the sound when they are on. I find that reduces the annoyance significantly. I'd turn off the picture too, but I need to know when they are over. On the Internet, I use an ad-blocker. If the channel won't let me use the blocker, fair enough, I'll look for the content elsewhere. On the radio, I turn the sound down until I can just hear the sound but not make out the words. There is a certain cadence to commercials that I can recognize.

To all advertisers ... I understand that you need to let people know that you have something to sell. That's fine, just tell me that, once if possible, not over and over, sometimes several times in the same commercial break. Don't insult my intelligence. I see through your emotional tricks and lies. Oh, and don't turn the sound up. Or shout at me. All these things make me less likely to buy your product.

I don't watch as much TV as I used to, so I'm not bothered with commercials much anymore. I don't have cable TV, and I rarely watch antenna TV. I don't even subscribe to Amazon, Netflix, or any of the pay services, though I sometimes watch the free channels on my Roku - with commercials (but at least they have a timer in the corner of the screen telling you how long the commercials will last, which is an enormous plus).

In fact, part of the reason I quit cable TV was that it was rather pricey, yet most of the channels in the expanded basic package (ESPN, History, CNN, etc.) were all inundated with commercials - more than on the broadcast channels. Why should I pay to watch an endless stream of commercials? Not to mention the infomercials, which were also on all the cable channels.

If it were up to me, I'd impose a tax on infomercials. For every dollar they pay the TV network for air time, they should pay 10 dollars to the government. That'll fix 'em but good.

 

[Subduction Zone]

Muah Ha ha!!!

 

[Alien826]

I don't mind commercials. They're an interesting sociological study at how capitalism can distort facts to make it seem like they're doing something they're not. I'm rarely affected by them, and find a laugh or two sometimes at their obvious stupid suggestions. It makes me wonder at who writes them, and what did they think that would work?

I do find some mildly annoying, but only because of their jingles. The best ones are downright creative or funny.

Well, yes. I also study the commercials and try to decide how effective they might be from a marketing pov. Did you see the one for Farmer's car insurance (they'd been quite amusing with odd claims they had experienced)? When he refused to give the little girl a balloon because her parents weren't insured, I saw that as a huge mistake. It came over as mean and unkind, not funny. It was taken off soon after, I don't know if that was the reason.

Some can be entertaining, yes, but precious few.

 

[Alien826]

Muah Ha ha!!!

That's incredibly annoying. Was that your point?

 

[WalterTrull]

I will pay for an ad-free TV channel if I have to

Solution !!

 

[Exaltist Ethan]

@Alien826

There is (or was) a way to get TV without any commercials. Amazon Prime Video offered HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, Epix, Starz and PixL ad-free channels if you subscribed to them. About 40 commercial-free channels for about $50 a month. I used to have that custom package, but when they removed HBO from that lineup, after HBO became HBO Max, I decided to get YouTube TV with HBO Max. YouTube TV with HBO Max includes HBO channels, but to get the channels you need to pay for the base package.

On Amazon Prime Video you needed to pay for Amazon Prime, $15 a month standard, which together with the ad-free stations was the same price as YouTube TV is by itself. You can still do this custom package, and offer it to anyone you feel comfortable sharing your Amazon Prime account with, but HBO and its channels are no longer offered as a subscription. Discovery+ has 24/7 ad-free channels on Amazon Prime if you subscribe to that as well.

Another option is to also subscribe to these services separately, but without a live TV package chances are you won't get all of the channels, unfortunately. Showtime offers Showtime East and West on their streaming app. I think Starz does too. If you want ad-free TV this is probably the best option, if you are willing to pay for that premium.

Edit: Look at this @Alien826

Prime Video: Channel Guide

 

[Subduction Zone]

That's incredibly annoying. Was that your point?

Yes. It is the most evil commercial ever. It also played on both AM and FM radios when it came out. Think of it you are driving and cannot really afford to be constantly changing the station and besides you like the show that you are listening to and then that thing comes on. Not just once, but hundreds if not thousands of times.

There should be an additional fee added to commercials depending on how annoying they are and how often that they are repeated.

 

[Exaltist Ethan]

I just found out that you can get all (or most of) the premium channel subscriptions on YouTube TV without paying for the base plan. You only need the base plan if you want to bundle services. And, if you pay for that you also get access to their streaming apps too.

That is very interesting...

 

[TagliatelliMonster]

Not the old style static commercials, like a sheet stuck to a wall.

I started to hate them when they first appeared on TV, with their stupid jingles, half-truths, and endless repetition.

They've got worse over the years as advertisers have learned how press our buttons more successfully.

I try to avoid them as much as possible, and I will pay for an ad-free TV channel if I have to. If I'm watching a channel with commercials, I mute the sound when they are on. I find that reduces the annoyance significantly. I'd turn off the picture too, but I need to know when they are over. On the Internet, I use an ad-blocker. If the channel won't let me use the blocker, fair enough, I'll look for the content elsewhere. On the radio, I turn the sound down until I can just hear the sound but not make out the words. There is a certain cadence to commercials that I can recognize.

To all advertisers ... I understand that you need to let people know that you have something to sell. That's fine, just tell me that, once if possible, not over and over, sometimes several times in the same commercial break. Don't insult my intelligence. I see through your emotional tricks and lies. Oh, and don't turn the sound up. Or shout at me. All these things make me less likely to buy your product.

I understand that advertising as an industry is important.
We also, with our company, advertise. It's important to get your name out there and for general branding.

However, I feel like there should be MUCH tighter rules.
Like many times, on TV, a movie or series will like jump into commercials without prior warning. As if they try to "trick" you into watching it. Same goes on "social" media. When "influencers" post something... is it an ad? Are they paid for it? Or are they just freely expressing their personal opinion? Important distinction imo. Not that *I* care about social media, but many other people do.


I also feel like there should be stricter rules concerning message and target audience.
Advertising to children, imo, should be pretty much illegal.
And telling (or even just implying) lies or half-truths should definitely be illegal.
On TV, there should also be some quota imo. Like, the commercial breaks can't be more then X% of the length of the show / movie they are in.

There supposedly are already rules like that. But they are soooo vague and ambiguous that it simply doesn't work.

 

[TagliatelliMonster]

Modern live TV streaming allows you to watch anything you recorded and fast forward through the commercials.

That's a finite story.
Live TV is seeing its ad-income evaporated as more and more people move to netflix and alike.
Many youngsters in their 20s today don't even have live TV anymore. They just have Netflix and other streaming services.

So the pressure on TV channels / distributors is IMMENSE to develop new solutions that makes it impossible to fast forward commercials. Even after you have recorded it.

It's already the case in Belgium. The new setup boxes have no hard drive and your recordings are "in the cloud". You can still fast forward the ads IN the show, but you are now forced to watch 1 minute of ads before your recorded show starts.

I used to work at the company that develops this software and still have contact with some of my former collegues. I know for a fact that the only reason that you can still fast forward the ad IN the show, is because of technical difficulties and it would have taken far too long to develop. It would also break backwards compatibility with the older setup boxes. A problem which will solve itself once all the older boxes are out of circulation.

Every live commercial TV channel / distribution company is eventually going to go down that route. The advances in tech has caught up with their "old" business model. Ads is how they make money.

So providing tech that allows you to avoid them all together, is them shooting themselves in the foot.

While it is a steep price, I've learned that I can share this service with my four closest friends and family, which ultimately makes the whole experience worth it.

Yep. This is quietly condoned at the moment even though their terms of service don't allow it.
It is condoned ONLY because the race of gathering subscriptions is still ongoing.
That too is a finite story.

I predict that within the next 5 years, the sharing of accounts will be rendered pretty much impossible (at least without paying extra.) on all streaming services.

 

[TagliatelliMonster]

I don't mind commercials. They're an interesting sociological study at how capitalism can distort facts to make it seem like they're doing something they're not. I'm rarely affected by them, and find a laugh or two sometimes at their obvious stupid suggestions. It makes me wonder at who writes them, and what did they think that would work?

I do find some mildly annoying, but only because of their jingles. The best ones are downright creative or funny.

You know... ads work not because of the content of the ad.
It actually matters little what the ad says.

What matters is the excessive repeat of the brand name.

Say you see a commercial a couple times in one week.
And 2 weeks later, all you remember is the brand or product name and not a thing about how the ad goes...
Then it's "mission accomplished".

The content only really matters in the sense that it can't give you negative energy that you then associate with the brand.

In the "advertising art", the best ads are those that you have completely forgotten about, while remembering the brand / product without a negative connotation.

 

[Vinayaka]

You know... ads work not because of the content of the ad.
It actually matters little what the ad says.

What matters is the excessive repeat of the brand name.

Say you see a commercial a couple times in one week.
And 2 weeks later, all you remember is the brand or product name and not a thing about how the ad goes...
Then it's "mission accomplished".

The content only really matters in the sense that it can't give you negative energy that you then associate with the brand.

In the "advertising art", the best ads are those that you have completely forgotten about, while remembering the brand / product without a negative connotation.

Personally, I can't ever recall buying anything at all where the desire was created by an ad. It may have happened, but generally I'm way too pragmatic for that. (I'm a cheap _______.) But yes, I know what you said makes sense for many many people. It's subliminal. Advertising works, but not for everyone.