I have been trying to think of shtuff about which to write here, and it hit me last night...television commercials. For the most part, I despise them. I loathe them. Especially when one set goes off to return to the programming I'm watching only to return to commercial not five minutes later. Really, two minutes of commercials, then less than five minutes of programming, and a return to two more minutes of commercials. Seems a little overkill to me.
I understand the premise behind television advertising, and of advertising in general. Media outlets need the advertising revenue in order to provide programming and information to the masses. I get that. I really do.
This morning as I was standing on the porch while Bailey went out to the yard for his morning constitutional, a recurring thought popped into my noodle. It's everywhere. Advertising is everywhere. On Facebook, online news media, driving down the road, listening to the radio, watching television...hell, you can't even go to the damn movies nowadays without having to sit through an advertisement or two. Professional sporting events have become nothing more than orgies of advertising. The name of the stadium, ballpark, or whatever the venue is an advertisement of some business or other (with the exception of a few, I concede that). The athletes are required to wear a particular brand of uniform, socks, shoes, pads, jock-strap or mouthguard. Hell, they don't even get to choose what popular sports/energy drink they may want (heaven forbid they drink water). It all depends on the contract agreement between the team and whatever company supplies the team.
It seems like a bad joke to me. A bad joke that has gone really bad. I used to work for a company that used little to nothing in the way of paid advertising. You never saw an ad in print (beyond a coupon), on the television or anywhere else. What it did rely on was the word of mouth advertising due to the quality of the product it provided. It too eventually sold out to the advertising behemoth and changed the entire face of the company, but only after the founder of the company left the helm (sound familiar Wal-Mart?).
Sounds pretty simple to me. Kind of like "if you build it, he will come." I know that only happens in the movies, but even the most outlandish fiction has an element of truth. Why else would people enjoy it so much?
Prices keep on going up and up and up. We spend the money willfully in part because we need what we're buying, and also because we are made to believe we might need something. I bet prices could come down, at least a little, if businesses relied more on their customers' word of mouth and product quality rather than spending money on snake-oil medicine shows.
That's just me. I just hate commercials. I can't be the only one. I've never heard anyone say that they love watching television commercials, well except for the Super Bowl. But then, I haven't watched that in couple of years.
I understand the premise behind television advertising, and of advertising in general. Media outlets need the advertising revenue in order to provide programming and information to the masses. I get that. I really do.
This morning as I was standing on the porch while Bailey went out to the yard for his morning constitutional, a recurring thought popped into my noodle. It's everywhere. Advertising is everywhere. On Facebook, online news media, driving down the road, listening to the radio, watching television...hell, you can't even go to the damn movies nowadays without having to sit through an advertisement or two. Professional sporting events have become nothing more than orgies of advertising. The name of the stadium, ballpark, or whatever the venue is an advertisement of some business or other (with the exception of a few, I concede that). The athletes are required to wear a particular brand of uniform, socks, shoes, pads, jock-strap or mouthguard. Hell, they don't even get to choose what popular sports/energy drink they may want (heaven forbid they drink water). It all depends on the contract agreement between the team and whatever company supplies the team.
It seems like a bad joke to me. A bad joke that has gone really bad. I used to work for a company that used little to nothing in the way of paid advertising. You never saw an ad in print (beyond a coupon), on the television or anywhere else. What it did rely on was the word of mouth advertising due to the quality of the product it provided. It too eventually sold out to the advertising behemoth and changed the entire face of the company, but only after the founder of the company left the helm (sound familiar Wal-Mart?).
Sounds pretty simple to me. Kind of like "if you build it, he will come." I know that only happens in the movies, but even the most outlandish fiction has an element of truth. Why else would people enjoy it so much?
Prices keep on going up and up and up. We spend the money willfully in part because we need what we're buying, and also because we are made to believe we might need something. I bet prices could come down, at least a little, if businesses relied more on their customers' word of mouth and product quality rather than spending money on snake-oil medicine shows.
That's just me. I just hate commercials. I can't be the only one. I've never heard anyone say that they love watching television commercials, well except for the Super Bowl. But then, I haven't watched that in couple of years.
No comments:
Post a Comment