# Does anyone actually voluntarily watch TV commercials? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 22, 2011, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-voluntarily-watch-tv-commercials/579317 "2011-04-22T02:40:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-voluntarily-watch-tv-commercials/579317/21 "2011-04-22T10:52:50Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Yes, if I’m watching a live show (as opposed to on the DVR). > > Then again, I work in advertising. So, all of you guys who mute or skip ads are taking food out of my family’s mouths. 😉 Hell, by the time a commercial is on, you’ve been paid already, right? 😉 Having said that, I almost never watch TV. When I do, I’ll sometimes watch the commercials, especially if they’re for things that I’m actually interested in buying (video games or such) or they’re amusing. I mean, I love the [Jog On, Kitties](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6CcxJQq1x8) ad, though I have to watch it on YouTube. And since I’m here, I guess I’ll fix the title, too. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-voluntarily-watch-tv-commercials/579317/22 "2011-04-22T13:11:57Z")
> [@Submerged](#): > > I hit mute every time. I doubt I’ve seen a commercial in years. > > Does anyone actually watch them, and if so why? Before reading other replies, I want to echo these sentiments – for the most part. In those relatively rare situations when we’re watching something “live” (we try to watch DVR’ed things so we can FF through the commercials) I will mute as soon as the commercials start. In many cases I will look away as well, or leave the room. However, every once in a while I will see one that piques my interest enough to turn off the mute and rewind the buffer to see and hear what it was about. If I had to guess at the percentage of commercials I have missed – aside from those shows at Super Bowl time when the “good” commercials are spotlighted – I’d feel very comfortable with 80% and it might be as high as 90%. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-voluntarily-watch-tv-commercials/579317/23 "2011-04-22T13:15:35Z")
> [@badlyburnttoast](#): > > Sure I watch them. What, you mute them and then stare at the wall? I read a book, or fast forward past them. Or I _did_; it’s been a long time since I actually watched TV, partly because of the relentless commercials. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-voluntarily-watch-tv-commercials/579317/24 "2011-04-22T13:54:43Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > Hell, by the time a commercial is on, you’ve been paid already, right? 😉 Well, yes. It’s the long-term trend which may drive me out of advertising and into sheepherding. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-voluntarily-watch-tv-commercials/579317/25 "2011-04-22T14:02:57Z")
> [@badlyburnttoast](#): > > Sure I watch them. What, you mute them and then stare at the wall? that’s worse then just watching the commercials. > > I mean sure I’ll get up to use the restroom or make a sandwich or something if the need arises but if I don’t have anything better to do it beats staring off into space. This, although someone monitoring my brain waves during the commercial might _think_ I was just staring at the wall…until the miniature giraffe comes on! ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-voluntarily-watch-tv-commercials/579317/26 "2011-04-22T14:20:50Z")
Some commercials are worth watching as works of entertainment. There’s no genre of entertainment that doesn’t have some value in it. Saying “I don’t watch any commercials” is like saying “I don’t watch any television” or “I don’t read any books” or “I don’t listen to any popular music” or “I don’t watch any black and white movies”. You’re just missing the good with the bad. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-voluntarily-watch-tv-commercials/579317/27 "2011-04-22T14:36:16Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > …until the miniature giraffe comes on! Sokoblovsky Farms – Russia’s Finest Purveyor of Miniature Lap Giraffes! [http://www.petitelapgiraffe.com/](http://www.petitelapgiraffe.com/) ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-voluntarily-watch-tv-commercials/579317/28 "2011-04-22T14:57:25Z")
> [@Submerged](#): > > (shrug) never saw 'em. > > Regardless of how amusing you thought they were, they are still just insidious psychological ploys to sell you stuff that you don’t need. > > Do people really not realize that? The superbowl ad thing is so baffling to me. Speakin’ the truth. When I watch superbowl ads, I am usually at the store within minutes and making purchases: toothpaste, tampons (I’m a guy), beer I don’t like, hemorrhoid cream (I don’t even know what a hemorrhoid is!), veggie burgers. I’ve added combination lock seat belts to my couch just to slow me down, sometimes, by the time I get the lock undone, the urge to purchase and consume has passed, so this setup seems to be working for me. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-voluntarily-watch-tv-commercials/579317/29 "2011-04-22T15:36:38Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Sokoblovsky Farms – Russia’s Finest Purveyor of Miniature Lap Giraffes! > [http://www.petitelapgiraffe.com/](http://www.petitelapgiraffe.com/) > [@](#): > > Congratulations!!! You make 959,618 on waiting list for petite lap giraffe. Woohoo! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-voluntarily-watch-tv-commercials/579317/30 "2011-04-22T16:10:45Z")
Sure, even though I skip through commericials with Tivo, one will catch my eye once in a while. The little piggy crying wheeeee, the woman breaking up with her boyfriend with a text message (but it’s ok because she has unlimited texts), and movie trailers. ---
**Author:** ![swampbear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampbear/32/467_2.png) [@swampbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampbear)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-voluntarily-watch-tv-commercials/579317/31 "2011-04-22T16:41:58Z")
I watch the ads for Bender and Bender law firm just in case it’s the one with the bald guy who puts on a cowboy hat. It leaves both of us weak from laughter because it’s just so stoooooooooooooooooopid. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-voluntarily-watch-tv-commercials/579317/32 "2011-04-22T17:25:00Z")
I appreciate good commercials. Yes, the majority suck. The majority of everything sucks. But there are truly good commercials out there. Yes, they’re trying to sell me stuff. I know that and I’m ok with it. Quite frankly, if they entertain me enough, I feel they deserve my money. I consciously buy products based on the fact they have better 30-second spots than their competitors do. I want to encourage companies to use their advertising dollars well. And I want **kenobi 65** ’s children to have shoes. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-voluntarily-watch-tv-commercials/579317/33 "2011-04-22T18:09:05Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Some commercials are worth watching as works of entertainment. There’s no genre of entertainment that doesn’t have some value in it. > > Saying “I don’t watch any commercials” is like saying “I don’t watch any television” or “I don’t read any books” or “I don’t listen to any popular music” or “I don’t watch any black and white movies”. You’re just missing the good with the bad. The thing is, in some media, the bad outweighs the good by so much that the chances of coming across something good is vanishingly slight. Rather than ferret out the needles of good in the haystacks of bad, I’ll go and enjoy some other entertainment, which is more likely to actually entertain me. I mean, the only value in most commercials is being able to mock them later for their epic amounts of fail. ---
**Author:** ![Daylate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9dc877/32.png) [@Daylate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daylate)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-voluntarily-watch-tv-commercials/579317/34 "2011-04-22T18:24:17Z")
You all know that if God had wanted us to watch commercials He wouldn’t have allowed the remote to have been invented. I haven’t voluntarily watched a commercial in years - a book is always handy, or some interesting surfing is available. However, one of the things that really frosts me about commercials is that, even if they are muted during the broadcast of a movie, they cut up the movie so bady that it becomes unwatchable. So I never watch movies on TV except for one channel which broadcasts without commercials. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-voluntarily-watch-tv-commercials/579317/35 "2011-04-22T19:30:36Z")
Quite often, the ads are better than the shows! ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-voluntarily-watch-tv-commercials/579317/36 "2011-04-22T19:41:08Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > Quite often, the ads are better than the shows! No Way! They are so insidious that it is impossible to watch and enjoy the funny ones without becoming part of the evil capitalist consumer machine. This is the same reason I stopped reading books also - there is usually an ad for other books by the same author - no way I’m getting caught up in that. Typically in the evening I sit motionless in a completely white room with only a candle and I contemplate my very existence. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-voluntarily-watch-tv-commercials/579317/37 "2011-04-22T20:08:07Z")
> [@RaftPeople](#): > > Typically in the evening I sit motionless in a completely white room with only a candle and I contemplate my very existence. You only have those white walls because the paint industry has conditioned you to see white walls as normal. Look around in nature, do you see white walls. No you do not. Wake up sheeple. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-voluntarily-watch-tv-commercials/579317/38 "2011-04-22T20:09:10Z")
I absolutely watch the commercials. Sometimes they even work. Reminding people of stuff they like to purchase is a perfectly cromulent function of TV time. Some of them are very entertaining. Some of them are so bad as to make me want to avoid the product out of spite. I understand the feelings about having a program interrupted but it’s part of the cost of getting to watch a show for free. I find it somewhat disturbing that people feel compelled to ignore them out of a sense of entitlement. ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-voluntarily-watch-tv-commercials/579317/39 "2011-04-22T20:43:03Z")
> [@gazpacho](#): > > You only have those white walls because the paint industry has conditioned you to see white walls as normal. Look around in nature, do you see white walls. No you do not. Wake up sheeple. In one seemingly simple post, the very foundation of my entire world view has been crashed upon the rocks below and I now, in a vain attempt to keep my sanity, twist and contort every experience I have had so that my rationalizations intersect in a meaningful way. If only I watched TV, I’m sure there would be a product that could help me in my time of need. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-voluntarily-watch-tv-commercials/579317/40 "2011-04-22T21:21:49Z")
No. I don’t watch commercials. For the most part, I DVR things and then fast-forward through the commercials. If I’m out of DVRed programming then I’ll pause the program and then come back a little while later when there is enough buffered to fast-forward through the commecials. On the occasion when I’m watching one of the other TVs in my house that doesn’t have a DVR, I’ll flip back and forth between two shows to avoid watching commercials. If the commercials for the two shows start to overlap, I’ll find another show to add to the rotation. If it gets to be too much work to avoid the commercials, I’ll get up and go do something else. I hate commercials. I figure I’m wasting enough time just watching TV, I’m sure not going to make the time even less valuable by watching commercials. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-voluntarily-watch-tv-commercials/579317.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-actually-voluntarily-watch-tv-commercials/579317.md?page=3)