Has Commercial Advertisement Taken Over and Ruined Everything?

[Civic Justice]

One can't even watch the "local" news without every 45 seconds or so, a commercial, that turns into 4 or 5 commercials.
if one read's Yahoo of some of the other web site... they can't even print a story with any substance, and then its a partial paragraph and then a link to 'click to read more", which takes one to another page, filled with advertisements.
The website Cheat Sheet is obsessed with "page clicking", if one wants to see or read what is posted.

Sure, Revenue is needed, that's understandable... but the incessant advertising is absurd. I generally ignore all advertisement, because If I need something, I have an idea of what I need and will go search it out and find out who sells it.

I detest paying cable and having commercials show, because I REMEMBER when cable TV started as Paid Commercial Free" TV... NOW THEY ARE JUST GREEDY.... to the point they saturate the public with insidious commercials. Many are targeted at the people 14-45, anything with people over 45 is probably some "pill commercial", or "medical device". Yet, only doctors can prescribe this stuff, so why advertise it to people in general... they can't buy it over the counter, and if the doctor did not prescribe it they can't get it. So, what the point in the Advertisements. Is it to try and get people to diagnoses themselves?

The irresponsible conduct often seen in commercials, likely has led many people to harm themselves, and in some cases maybe even loose their life. We already know many people claim depression when they can't get the stuff being advertised. We have no regulatory controls on this madness, at some point it has to become regulated. Not only regulated, but if one claims to have content about something specific, they need to have more than just police blotter snag from over the wire.

As a society... how do we address this excessive media saturation with advertising. (short of completely turning off the TV and Computers)
It's also like the madness of site converting their sign on to Facebook....sign in.... I avoid any site that mandates me to use a Facebook log in to access the site. Any site that does not have what the link claims, I close it down right away.

Forums like this is OK, they manage the advertising, so it is not the dominant thing for the visitors to the site.

The point of this post is simply to see if anyone else is "annoyed with the incessant advertisements" ??

[notdarkyet]

1. My sister and I got really mad about it. There is a tv in the front of the checkout line showing

Commercials while you wait in Walmart. Cars, buses, vans all have advertising of people’s businesses on them. Maybe it is a write off for them, but they are everywhere.there are more examples but you are right. I really can’t think this helps, maybe, but I don’t like it.

[Civic Justice]

7. Even at gas stations, some have monitors on the pump's showing commercials.

I'm so fed up with it.....

It seems now they make them more outrageous and insidious..... it's like it tells us what kind of mindsets are behind their creation of some of these commercials.

I had for a long time a Windows Phone, I switched to Android... When I had windows, I never got a batch of commercials popping up on my phone like with Android.

[RhodeIslandOne]

41. I was at a Speedway the other night.....

.....literal hell is the overhead speakers blaring a rock station while the pump is screaming ESPN highlights at me on video!

[TheMastersNemesis]

2. Advertising Has Continually Encroached On Content. Now 1/3 Of Every Hour Commercials.

Plus there is a higher commercial load at every break. And you have to add the 30 minute paid content proliferation in off hours.
Even PBS is now plagued by commercial as the right wing has taken more control and cut funding. Even PBS has lost about minutes of content during breaks.

[backtoblue]

3. Short answer is yes.

[Wounded Bear]

4. I've noticed a few things along this line...

1. Watching TV show recordings (ads deleted) I can see some of the classic shows were several minutes longer than current ones. Old Star Trek episodes take 45-47 minutes, newer NCIS episodes run about 42-44 minutes.

2. The time slot reserved for movies has grown. It had been about 2 hours for a 90-100 minute movie for many years. Currently, I see some channels have set aside 3 hours for a 2 hour movie. That's about 30% of air time for commercials.

It's not just you. Frankly, I suspect that advertising is driving the interminable election cycles we have here in the states. Other countries have much shorter election cycles. Hell, England changes it's entire government in a few weeks. It takes us months and years to do ours.

Yeah, advertising is taking over everything.

[rurallib]

12. Sports in particular are ruined by commercials

a 40 minute college basketball game takes 2.5 hours (150 minutes) these days.
The forced breaks totally affects the games.

World Cup will be a pleasure this summer - 90 minutes of play and a 15 minute break (105 minutes) will take @ 110 minutes with stoppage time.

We watch most everything on time delay to avoid commercials

[BumRushDaShow]

15. The original Star Trek TOS episodes were 51 minutes

and the newer ones eventually dropped down to about 41 minutes.

There used to be about 9 - 10 minutes of commercials in an hour now there are about 20 minutes of commercials in an hour (not counting the annoying popup "ads" at the bottom of the screen DURING a show or the split screen ads during the credits).

[RKP5637]

29. Yep, in the US the election cycle just mushes one into the next one. It's stupid, ridiculous and

so ignorant and backward!!! 24x7 cable news doesn't help either.

[Sherman A1]

5. I believe this is exactly what has happened

And I find myself watching less and less cable TV. The incessant barrage of ads for chairlifts, insurance and drugs that no one knew they needed is just to much.

[RKP5637]

31. Same here. Anymore I'm just shutting it off. n/t

[cyclonefence]

6. Blame Ronald Reagan

His FCC removed restrictions on how many minutes of every hour could be devoted to commercials. The Grate Communicator.

[napi21]

30. That's RIGHT! If you think about a lot of the things we complain about started with Uncle Ronnie.

The HUGH National Debt; Cut payment to the Dept. of Education from 12% to 6%; started "The War on Drugs"; and hundreds more things that still affect our living TODAY!

[RKP5637]

32. Yep, Reagan started, "Let's Take America Down!" n/t

[Maraya1969]

8. The internet is almost no fun anymore. I had a pop up blocker and

then practically every site would ask me to turn it off.

And now with the pop ups taking over half of the screen it is just not worth it.

Even supposedly good sites link to click bait sites.

I won't go through a click bait site anymore. It just pisses me off.

[Initech]

11. Oh god I hate Taboola and Outbrain with the firey passion of 1000 suns.

The sooner these things are cast into the pit from hell from which they came the better. No I will *NOT* like any of the things listed in the "You may like" column. I definitely don't give a shit what underwear guys are "obsessed" with (and that ad is creepy as fuck), I don't need suggestions for what mattress I should sleep on, I don't need suggestions for the "5 most popular SUVs in my area", I don't care that this "brilliant" company is disrupting a billion dollar industry (it isn't), and I do not want to see ads for Progressive Insurance and all that other shit on my PC. It's madness!

[Civic Justice]

19. 100% agree

[MicaelS]

27. I hate Taboola and Outbrain, too.

Glad I'm not the only one.

[RKP5637]

33. Same here! PCs, Handhelds, they're just becoming 24x7 commercials - ad devices. n/t

[Initech]

35. I know! We have the most awesome technology in the universe.

And all we've done with it is make it another advertising delivery system! Madness.

[rurallib]

13. just wait til net neutrality ends

I suspect advertisers will get priority and reading anything online may be a challenge.

[Wounded Bear]

44. One thing I noticed about the change from print to the 'net...

Newspapers got their major income from ads, too. But they had to pay for paper and ink and distribution, so the actual writing, the news articles, had to be terse and densely written. Editors were famous for cutting all chaff out of articles, even from such things as opinion pieces and LttE. Only major pieces were threaded across multiple pages, because the coin of the realm was column inches.

Now, there are no overhead charges for internet content. Pixels are virtually free. So, writers are seemingly encouraged to ramble and fluff their writing to get more scrolling and 'pages' so they can cram more ads in. Most content is self-edited, and not very well. So writing quality has dropped immensely. Kind of like the entertainment on TV. More of it, packed with more ads, and tons less quality.

[BumRushDaShow]

9. It's even in radio where even the traffic report every 10 minutes on my local news radio station

here in Philly reminds listeners that the accident being reported is being seen on "the Mealey's Furniture Jam Cam" and they are "broadcasting from the Trumark Financial 24 hour traffic center".

We ARE this now -

[kimbutgar]

17. I thought we were years away from idiocracy

But we got there quicker in November 2016.

Now that film looks like a documentary.

[RKP5637]

34. Yep, it is! United Stupidity US has gone full Idiocracy, a has-been nation. n/t

[Initech]

10. I have a theory that advertising ruins everything.

And here's a perfect example. Take this phrase:

"Please do not text and drive."

Pretty powerful statement. Gets the job done. Now let's rewrite that sentence:

"Mercedes Benz reminds you not to text and drive."

Totally loses all meaning doesn't it? I think part of the problem with society is that we gave a monetary value to advertising and they just want more of it now.

[rurallib]

14. makes me think of "Budweiser reminds you to drink responsibly"

what hogwash

[Initech]

18. Reminds me of this George Carlin bit about advertising:

[gratuitous]

16. Yup

My latest peeve is the haste with which popular music becomes commercial jingles. Years ago, Nike wanted to use the Beatles song "Revolution" for an advertising campaign, even cut and aired some commercials. Apple Records got in touch with Phil Knight and told him to knock it off. Knight dug in his heels, and insisted that if he could just sit down and talk with them, the Beatles would see it his way. You know, we can work it out.

Paul, George and Ringo said, no, life is very short and there's no time for this shit. Knock it off, for reals. And Nike backed down.

Nowadays I can hear a song in rotation on the local pop music station, then hear that same song on TV hawking Jeeps, Cadillacs, Crestor, and other products. The concept of "selling out" has now become a badge of honor rather than shame.

[Initech]

20. I don't mind if a band's song is used in a commercial.

But when the artist themselves starts hawking said product in a commercial then they totally lose all credibility. Like I love the band Portugal The Man for instance. I have no problem that their song "Feel It Still" is used as background music in commercials. I'm sure they didn't write that song for that kind of appeal but it gets used anyways and I'm sure they get paid for it. Now on the other hand Justin Timberlake - even though he is a good artist - does commercials for Pepsi and Nike, that's when you start to lose me.

[hunter]

21. Yes. Easy problem to solve, however.

Our television is a movie player, that's all it does, DVDs and Netflix. No cable, no satellite, no broadcast.

I pay for a star membership on DU.

I block internet advertising that moves or plays sound or is otherwise obnoxious. I blacklist some internet sites entirely rather than block their advertising.

There are a couple of technical sites I visit regularly that I don't block advertising on. What advertising they do have is highly focused and technical. More importantly it doesn't move, rearrange my screen as it's loading, or make noise.

[Civic Justice]

24. I'm glad you mentioned that "moving the screen madness"...

I use to make website, before they began using these container for everything, and now the container fill up with ads, and the screen jerks and take forever to load... I look at the lower left edge of the browser at all the sites that feed into a page, its crazy..

I often go through and delete "cookies" from the computer.... because people have colluded everything within their madness.

When it comes to "Information" Many times, I simply just go "research things I want to know", because many new articles and stories have no real in-depth info, they just use a "drama based headline" to draw people to a page full of advertisements.

[HAB911]

22. I'm wearing out my mute button

They killed ReplayTV for enabling commercial skipping

On October 31, 2001, numerous TV companies, including the three major networks, filed a lawsuit against SONICblue, which at the time marketed the ReplayTV device. They alleged that the ReplayTV 4000 series was part of an “unlawful scheme” that “attacks the fundamental economic underpinnings of free television and basic nonbroadcast services” according to the lawsuit.

The TV industry attacked ReplayTV for two reasons:

The machines enabled people to record television programs and then watch them without commercials via the optional "Commercial Advance" feature.[6] This had the potential to undercut advertising revenues which the lawsuit called "the lifeblood of most television channels".
The machines allowed users to share programs they have recorded with others via the "Send Show" feature, which transmits digital copies of shows not only on a local network, but also over the Internet to other ReplayTV owners, thereby enabling people who had not paid for premium channels to watch premium content for free.
Both the “Commercial Advance” and the “Send Show” features were alleged to violate U.S. copyright and other federal and state laws, according to the TV industry plaintiffs, who wanted sales of the ReplayTV 4000 devices—slated for shipment on Nov. 15, 2001—stopped.[7]

The lawsuit against SONICblue was stayed when the company filed for bankruptcy protection in March 2003. In August 2003, the ReplayTV 5500 series went on sale without the “Autoskip” and “Send Show” features though the features continued to be enabled on the earlier models.

[Blue_Adept]

37. Yeah, I remember ReplayTV

Thankfully, TiVo enabled commercial skip last year and I see even less than I used to. I timeshift everything.

[Civic Justice]

23. I make effort to ignore advertising as much as possible.

I found long ago that it is not believable.. nothing every meets the advertised claims.

I see these phone advertisement, about "new phones".... and I think Apple has made people crazy, to spend that much money and 6 months later they come with a new model, which claims to do something, which they could have made the old model do if they'd programmed the software to do it.
I don't do gaming, so for me a phone is a information and communication device... besides I can carry a 1000 sets of encyclopedia on a flash drive with more information than I'd have time to read within normal daily living.

Just to show the silliness of much of advertising, has anyone "ever got a hamburger" that looks like the one in the advertisement???

I find on a variety of products the more they advertise it, the lower quality you will find that item to becomes.

When Mercedes did not advertise their vehicles all over the place, they were long term durable vehicles, and their quality stood as its own advertisement among those who knew that level of quality. Now, everyone and their cousin's friend has one, and they are continually in the shop and in a few years the cost drop is like a nose dive off the high board, as it plunges. The same with BMW.


It's all a big fluke played out on the people, because 'much that is advertised is "foreign made"... America did not need massive advertisement like it has today, when AMERICA MADE ITS OWN PRODUCTS, because the people worked there, their friends and associates knew about the product, and we had no need to bombard people with incessant advertisements.

When we get read to change america, is when we decide to not buy the heavily advertised stuff....

Its so crazy now, until one goes to the grocery store, and have to swipe a card so marketers can track everything we buy, eat and utilize, or they want to charge more if you don't swipe the card.

Greed and its madness is destroying everything in America.

[Amishman]

25. Just get in the habit of using your DVR

Skip the commercials.

I'll do this even with live sports. I'll turn it on, go in another room and read a book for half an hour, come back and start at the beginning. Fast forward through the commercials.

[TimeSnowDemos]

26. A gentle reminder

The US has twice as many TV and radio ads as any other country. And no other country allows pharma to advertise.

US media is a blackhole.

[Vinca]

28. Advertising is driving me out of my mind. It's everywhere.

I've given up going to several web sites because there is now more advertising than content and some of it takes so long to load you might die of old age before the entire page appears. Television is equally bad. I especially hate the drug advertisements and, more specifically, the cutesy ones with catchy initial acronyms. I heard a chipper one the other day for "MBC." Metastatic breast cancer. As if any everyday schmuck watching television can decide what medication is best for their cancer treatment. The drug ads are so bad I almost miss the booze and cigarette advertising of the old days.

[Initech]

36. The car ads are getting equally obnoxious.

The Cadillac ones that play a song where it says over and over "worship me", the Lexus one where the cute kid gets upended by her pregnant mom, followed by the ads that make car buying seem like it's so complicated the average person can't comprehend it, followed by ads for car parts and services, and all kinds of other bullshit that you don't need. And every car company has to have a sales event and it's preceded by so much ad copy that you don't even know what they are selling. It makes one want to throw a rock at their TV.

[ooky]

38. I hate it so much I refuse to watch it on TV. So all the regular shows

I want to watch on TV I set my DVR to record. That way I fast forward through all the commercials. Problem solved.

Free websites, my attitude is a little different since they need the revenue. As long as the ad isn't preventing me from having a good experience on the website I'm okay with it and not really paying attention to the ads anyway. Reader view, when available, can be helpful. I always use my Ipad's private browsing mode too. If the ads are slowing down the website I don't keep going to that website. I'm not going to fight with ads, they'll win. That's the website's issue if it allows its ads to ruin it's readers experience that website probably won't last. Its not perfect, I particularly don't like the personalized ads which I think are an attack on our right to privacy and should be outlawed. But its not perfect, I will continue to visit the websites I like and use the tools I have available to help mitigate the annoyances.

[Oneironaut]

39. I even get texted advertisements now.

Some apps have advertisement messages built into them, so they show up on your phone’s home screen.

[Civic Justice]

40. Google and Facebook's Revenue is from ADVERTISING,

That alone should tell people that no matter what Facebook has to say, "they are still selling people, and selling advertisements to people".... they are not going to stop.... not matter how much they play with words telling people they have changed. They will not change... they will pay the fines when they come, and the loss mitigation team has already factored the profit minus the fine, and as long as the profits are high and the fine only cost them 1/10 of 1%, why would they change???

Google tracks EVERYTHING... and Android phones seem to be designed for Ad Promotion. the whole App thing, is now about Add Revenue... if its a good tool, its better to pay them a few dollars to keep the ad's away, but it still does not prevent them from selling ones information.
There should be a Law, that prevents APPs from requesting access to functions that have nothing to do with the performance of the APP.

We need smarter POLITICIANS, who actually care about the people, and we need Politicians, who actually know what the PREAMBLE of their State's Constitution said. Most of the politicians have no idea what is in their own State's Preamble. therefore, they have no concern to protect the welfare of its people. Most don't even understand the expanse of the world, "to promote the welfare of the people".....

I certainly think our educations system needs to make CIVICS EDUCATION INTO HIGH PRIORITY EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMING, AS BEING MANDATORY IN EVERY YEAR'S STUDY CURRICULUM THAT STUDENTS ENGAGE.

Advertising has made our society crazy!!!!!! No one can be satisfied with anything, because of incessant advertising.. IF THEY REDUCE THE ADVERTISING, CRIME WOULD GO DOWN. Because the "Lust For Things" WILL NOT BE SO PREMIER IN THE MINDS OF PEOPLE.

[RhodeIslandOne]

42. Does anyone else get mad at commericials at the movies?

Ten minutes of ads in addition to WAAAAAY too many previews and no one sighs or huffs like I do. Are younger people just so used to this now it's nothing to them?

[Civic Justice]

43. They are groomed "to be fascinated by advertisements"

Last edited Mon May 21, 2018, 08:07 PM - Edit history (1)

..... their life is based on a measure of having the advertised things....

Amazon.... it makes money not because people need things, but because of the "incessant WANTS" and the fascination with ordering on line and having it delivered.
It's like the old shopping malls, people went there and bought stuff because of the "novelty" not because they needed something, their status was connected to being able to shop and be seen doing it. Now, its about having every gadget advertised, even when one has no time or need for the stuff they buy.

It won't be long before it all comes CRASHING DOWN.... the gaming in the financial community of derivatives, over valued stocks, and over saturation of advertisements... is all leading to nothing but "debt piled on debt" and one can only shuffle the shell for so long before there is nothing to shuffle.

Poor countries where people buy what they need, and are not groomed to chase every want that is flashed before them, will be the survivors..... Gluttony is real and it has saturated American Society. It is too damaging other societies around the world.

People may look down on Africa, but in many of the un developed parts, the people would live fine, if western money did not create havoc trying to over take areas and work the people for nothing in pursuit to extract natural resources to feed the lusting's of Western Society. New leaders are emerging who are far wiser to it today and are able to stand up against many things they once could not stand up against. China produces lots of stuff, but China still has a vast population that is more controlled in a format of discipline under the varying ways the Regime that leads the country deals with various regions of big developed areas and more rural areas. They still seem the need to manage HOW they move those areas forward.

America on the other hand, is letting communities decline from one coast to the next... across this nation. and advertising is the drug that addicts people to be easily controlled, by their own obsessions of wants. We have families killing their entire family because they can't live the "advertised commercial imagery of life"... we have kids bullying other kids who don't measure up on the "commercial advertised imagery".... and we have couples who can love, because they measure the nature of their relationships on whether or not they can meet with the Advertised Imagery and Commercialized Promoted Standards based on Materialism.

Today, we have a society telling everyone they need a university degree for anything and everything, until people have lost the concept of human ingenuity and creativity, in lieu of chasing a degree label and the fictional promises attached to the promotion of it. We have the "dumbest society since the high saturated promotion of degree", until no one wants to work, and certainly no one is willing to "sweat" to produce anything. This society now looks down on anyone who "works up a sweat while performing a task".
We have a society who has no respect for the people who perform the actual labors that make this nation and economy function. If people are not "spit and polished with advertised bling"... they are considered as less than.

The impact of incessant Advertising is and has been a detriment to this society for many many decades and it gets worst every year.

[JHB]

45. This isn't the first time ad-blight has been upon us...

I'm not expert, but I think it was alleviated by regulation, zoning changes, etc. to impose limits on the relentless quest for eyeballs.

Hotel, 1880s, not sure where:

[Civic Justice]

46. That shows the insidiousness of Advertising ... "good picture" !!! to make the point