Commercials – who needs them?
I mute television commercials. I
listen to NPR because its commercial free and PBS News Hour because it’s
commercial free, except during Pledge Week.
I mute the begging. I pay a
little extra each month to enjoy Pandora commercial free. Cable TV is expensive enough, but I would
consider paying a few more dollars a month if I could stream my favorite shows
without commercials, as Pandora does.
I understand the need for commercials.
TV and radio stations need the revenue and advertisers need to convince us
to purchase their products. It must work
because companies keep advertising, people keep buying, and there are
correlations that show the relationship of one to the other. That doesn’t mean I have to listen.
I record most of the shows I want to watch on a regular basis. That way I can watch them on my schedule and
speed through the muted commercials. I
can also binge watch a whole season of episodes in a couple of evenings.
Local TV news shows advertize themselves during their own shows. They would reap more watchers if they
advertised to the people who watch afternoon shouting-match shows: Maury Povich,
Gerry Springer, Judge Judy, and the like.
Their audiences really need to learn what is going on in the world. Why advertize to me? I’m already watching. It’s one of my biggest peeves. It’s my opportunity to make tired but true
stale snide remarks like older people do.
Besides, commercials ruin cocktail-hour.
Today most people carry a computer in their pocket,
which lets them see the news as it happens, or within seconds. I can remember that as a kid we would sit in
front of the radio to listen to the evening news: Gabriel Heater, Lowell
Thomas, H.V. Kaltenborn, and others were must-listen-to-news years ago. The reporters were famous in themselves and
they reported the news down the middle. “This is Edward R.
Murrow reporting from London. The noise
you hear in the background is from German bombs exploding all over the City.” I
like my news straight up, no ads!
Every day, usually during the news programs, pharmaceutical companies
tell us to ask our doctor if we should take their medicine. I don’t go to the doctor very often, so when
I do go the list of medicines I need to ask about is pretty long. The last time I did that, the doctor’s reaction
was as scary as the side effects listed at the end of the commercials. I mute those commercials now. It’s better for my health.
Highly creative people cobble together short messages that will
convince me to change my life style, buy a new car or a better toilet
cleaner. Advertising wants to make it
easy for me to choose a particular product, to distinguish it from the other
twenty-two competitive products. It’s a $190
billion segment of the economy. In fact,
I guess I just don’t like the commercials, on any program. All that creativity wasted.
Maybe I have too much time on my hands.
