The world crashes in, into my living room
Television man I've got what you need
We are still good friends I know the way you are
Television man I know what you're tryin’ to be
Watchin’ everything and I gotta say
That's how the story ends.
Talking Heads 1985
I have not watched a commercial in about three years. This hit me recently when a friend made a joke based on a current commercial, and I gave him a blank stare. I hadn’t thought about it before, but I have now, and I have 2 thoughts.
First, isn't this great? In my never ending fascination of how electronic inventions have made my life better, the DVR (in my case Tivo) is definitely one of the best. I cannot imagine wasting another minute at any point in my life watching someone try to manipulate me into buying something. At the same time, I'm a little sad when I think about how much time was wasted watching commercials before, all because I was born a few years too early.
You can now knock out an NBA game in about an hour, and an NFL game in about 1:15. In a typical 44 minute Sunday morning news show, there may be about 30 minutes that I really have an interest in. You can now just skip that part; no more waiting around nibbling on the broccoli to get to the red meat. I can't think of the last time I actually watched a show at the regularly scheduled time. Also, no more running to the refrigerator like Usain Bolt to grab something by the end of the commercial.
My second thought is: are commercials going to disappear? It's too easy to fast forward past them now, and I know I'm not the only one doing it. The advertisers will eventually notice that the ratings will no longer equate with big sales. It's hard to sell product no one knows about. If I had to guess I would say that commercials in their current form will end within 4-5 years, but I'm not as confident about it as books disappearing (I think I spiked that prediction, by the way. I recently read that e-book sales doubled year-over-year and now make up more than 20% of the market).
From a professional standpoint, I'm not exactly thrilled with a universe with no TV ads, as I get quite a bit of business from them. But from a consumer standpoint, life without commercials is much more entertaining and efficient.
Have a good night everyone.
JR
"In my never ending fascination of how electronic inventions have made my life better, the DVR (in my case Tivo) is definitely one of the best. I cannot imagine wasting another minute at any point in my life watching someone try to manipulate me into buying something. "
ReplyDeletePardon the gentle ribbing: I bet you bought your Tivo based on the recommendation of a friend, who, in turn, was manipulated into buying one from a slick ad.
"But from a consumer standpoint, life without commercials is much more entertaining and efficient."
My first thought was that life without commercials is life without entertaining (or any type of) TV programs.
Well to be honest I have been 2 years now commercial free and from my standpoint any commercial I did see back when I had regular TV service I vowed not to buy whatever product was being screamed in my ear [Dunno if they still do this but commercials have higher volume than regular programming] So if anything companies are doing better now that I can't see their commercials as I am more likely to buy stuff that hasn't actively pissed me off or contributed to a migraine.
ReplyDeleteAs a second note the world could get along fine without advertising. Almost every company on earth charges you out the nose for subscriptions so commercials are a product of corporate greed more than necessity.