I do not have a cite. This is anecdotal. But it raises an interesting question.
Listening to Phil Rosenthal yesterday (he’s a television columnist for the Sun Times) on the Steve Dahl (he’s a dj that I would follow like a cult leader) show, he spoke of a plan by UPN to combat TiVo people who tape shows and fastforward through commercials.
Their plan is to replace the network logo in the lower right hand corner of the screen with a coroprate logo like Golden Arches, Pepsi Wave or VW symbol or whatever. This would cut down on the amount of time devoted to showing commercials.
So the question is…what would you prefer? (and yes, I know, watching t.v. rots the brain and I should be reading a book. This question is for people who like t.v.)
Watching commercials or the corporate logo imprint?
I dunno. I don’t really mind commecials. The good ones are entertaining and the bad ones give me something to rant about. A logo has no entertainment value whatsoever. In hour long shows I get some breaks to pee, get a snack, etc when commercials run. Without commecials, shows would be paced differently, with fewer suspenseful pauses.
Maybe we could get a system like they do in England, where the entire block of commercials is shown at the end of each show, which gives a good 5-7 minutes of commercials, or 5-7 minutes of run to the bathroom/refrigerator/etc. time.
I actually enjoy watching most commercials – the good ones are pleasant to watch and the bad ones I enjoy making fun of.
I rather doubt the advertisers would even go along with the logo thing. The logo might serve to advertise the company, but it wouldn’t say a thing about the products that company is trying to unload.
Well, what they were saying is that it would be sort of like the ULTIMATE product placement. A coke can in the corner for all of Law and Order or something.
We’re all such cynics. I agree that this will probably never happen.
But since you asked, I’ll answer the question. I would MUCH rather see a logo in the corner of the screen. I find it fairly easy to “tune it out” and ignore it. That would be much preferable to having various tripe shoved down my throat via a commercial.
Sure, some commercials are entertaining. But if I wanted to be entertained, how 'bout producing an entertaining SHOW instead of wasting it on the darn commercials???
Even the damned station logos piss me off. I stopped sending money to New Hampshire Public Television because they kept their damned logo in the corner of all the Red Dwarf episodes.
To answer the question, I’d pay good money for a digital device that would electronically obliterate the logos (commercial or otherwise) from my screen.
Chalk me up as another who doesn’t even like the station logo’s in the corner. If I started seeing ads in the corner during the show, that would be the end of television for me. I’m just waiting to see who will be first to sneak a corner logo on a video rental movie.
Another vote for no logo in the corner. The thing is that the current station logos are becoming more and more obnoxious already. Besides, what will happen after that is that the logos will start being animated. Then they will get REALLY annoying.