OMG, have TV commercials always been this dumb?

[SteveRiley]

I'm in Orlando for a cloud computing event, giving my usual keynote presentation tomorrow morning. In a highly unusual move, I've switched on the television in my hotel room as I slog through some room service grub. What I witness is truly, truly depressing.

First, an animated commercial starring blue bears discussing toilet paper. I see a close-up of what appears to be a baby bear's face, first in ecstasy and then shock as the mother bear calls from (presumably) downstairs, "You aren't using too much, are you?" The camera pulls back, and I see baby bear squatting on a toilet, surrounded by many many feet of unrolled paper. Baby bear proceeds to respond entirely as expected: with a big fat lie. "No!" he squeaks. The scene cuts to when after baby bear has rerolled the paper, and he gently removes only about two feet and cuddles it next to his face.

Question: does bear-fondled toilet paper demand a price premium? How much more would you pay?

Next, an ad for a stiffie pill. These appear to have toned themselves down a bit; at least the innuendo is less redonkulous.

Finally, an ad for a pill intended for those suffering from "Low T," apparently street slang for low testosterone. The narrator speaks over a visual showing a cluster of middle age guys waiting at a bus stop. WTF? How am I supposed to interpret this? Does riding a bus cause a person's testosterone to plunge, or is it an effect? Actually, I think the imagery is exactly wrong. Consider how the average city bus is constructed: with seats that face each other, highly reflective windows, and stripper poles, it's obvious that public transportation is designed to get you laid!

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Anywayz...gotta be up at 7:00 AM EST (which to my body clock is 4:00 AM), so it's time to go night-night. Just as soon as I throw this stupid TV out the window. Ugh.

[Snowhog]

That's why you aren't supposed to watch TV. The 'Net is so-o-o-o much more relevant!

[blobfish]

you should see the trash that is on between the commercials.

[tek_heretik]

This one is hard to explain, either the ad people are MORE retarded or they think the public has become more retarded, either way, yeah, good and/or funny ads these days are few and far between. Speaking of ads, or to be more precise, supposedly the volume difference between the main program and ads were supposed levelled out here in Canada, what a joke, the ads are STILL louder. Don't ya just love toothless legislation?!

[Jonas]

I hardly ever watch tv and when I do, it's always selected programs with commercial free, tax funded national channels. I grew sick of commercials and often the mindless ramble that's in between those commercials on those channels. Just a waste of time, money and resources.
I hope to see and live in a ad free city like Sao Paulo and ban the visual pollution of advertisement - http://www.newdream.org/resources/sao-paolo-ad-ban

However I did watch 30 mins of commercials on youtube some weeks ago, that was made by Roy Andersson, (nominated Palme d'Or and won Jury prize in Cannes)but that's humour’s commercials. Some of these wont make much sense unless you speak swedish/scandinavian, some have sub titles though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzbQbHWrR3E

btw .. needless to say I have had ad-block for as long as I can remember, in fact it could have been ad-block + Firefox that got me interested in FOSS. I guess I could argue that ads+commercials are good - it made me shut the tv off, and switch to GNU/Linux

b.r

jonas

[HalationEffect]

I ditched my TV set a little over eight years now, and I haven't looked back once.

Between that and running Firefox with No-Script, AdBlock and Ghostery, I've pretty much forgotten what ads are

[Detonate]

I loathe the commercials for the latest drug that will cure whatever is ailing you. The first 15 seconds telling you why you must immediately contact your doctor to get this drug and then 45 seconds of telling you why this drug is too dangerous to take.

[kubicle]

It never seizes to amaze me that advertising is legal.

[Qqmike]

I like commercials that are informative, give the facts, balanced. But those are few and far between in USA. You could still do those and retain the sex, the animal pets, and the babies; but they don't very often.

[tek_heretik]

I loathe the commercials for the latest drug that will cure whatever is ailing you. The first 15 seconds telling you why you must immediately contact your doctor to get this drug and then 45 seconds of telling you why this drug is too dangerous to take.

Yeah, I get a kick out of those too..."may cause hair loss, erectile dysfunction, skin ailments, various body parts swelling (except penis, lol), tumour development and in rare cases death", yeah, ok, I will run right out and get this drug. Some of those commercials actually do say "death", makes ya wonder who, for let's say maybe $5,000, signed a waver to test the drug and DIED?! Scary stuff.

[james147]

Question: does bear-fondled toilet paper demand a price premium?

Of course, many lives are lost trying to get bears to fondle that toilet paper.

This one is hard to explain, either the ad people are MORE retarded or they think the public has become more retarded, either way, yeah, good and/or funny ads these days are few and far between.

Personally I do think the public is retarded, so the ad people probably are as well... At least that is my impression from when I have to interact with the public *shudders*

[jlittle]

I've refused to allow broadcast TV where I live for nearly 3 decades now. The family threaten mutiny occasionally but a visit to friends or family with TV and there's no mention of it for a while. Known to be bad for children, as measured by academic attainment.
SteveRiley you often disparage Google but they have revolutionized advertising and taken many billions away from the obtrusive, dumbed down, corrosive... [italic] rant snipped [/italic] stuff you've complained about.

Regards, John Little

[james147]

Known to be bad for children, as measured by academic attainment.

I disagree with this, I think it all depends on what you watch... I have learnt so many interesting this from watching "How it works" idly in the background at my parent house. But personally I would rather give children a computer game to play with then sit them in front of the TV

[SteveRiley]

SteveRiley you often disparage Google but they have revolutionized advertising and taken many billions away from the obtrusive, dumbed down, corrosive... [italic] rant snipped [/italic] stuff you've complained about.

I'm a bit unclear what your point is. Based on what you've written, it would seem that your point is the following: because Google has successfully sucked revenue dollars away from something, that they then shouldn't be criticized for...anything?

Google is deserving of admiration for certain accomplishments. One: they've made more of the world's information accessible to more people than ever before in human history. Only good things can result from this.

Google is deserving of criticism for certain mistakes. One: they've demolished individual privacy to the extent that "customers" are actually products to be sold. Only bad things can result from this.

I would be interested in more specific arguments you might make against any of the statements I've made about Google.

[woodsmoke]

For the paranoiacs in the room...and people who just don't like.....stufffffff ..... TOR.

woodsmoke