Overall do you like commercials on Television…Because I think that if I had the choice of not watching any commercials during television shows I’d probably pass…because there are some really good ones. Such as the one for American Airlines that is done in sort of a cartoon/painting type of thing where the man picks a rose and takes it on his flight and when he gets where he is going we find out he is bringing a rose to his mother.
No.
I recognize that sponsorship drives programming, but I think it should be non-interruptive, and I resent the saturation level that people have gotten used to.
I have a weird brand loyalty to persisting products or companies that non-instrusively sponsored radio programs fifty or sixty years ago. On the other hand, intrusive television advertising only effects my buying habits in negative ways. I’ll stop buying products if they’re pushed too hard or with annoying ads. (The only exceptions I make are for movies, for some reason.)
For most shows, I go out of my way to avoid being exposed to narrative-interrupting advertising. I tape, Neo-Tivo, or download the shows, or wait for the DVD set instead.
I suppose I’m a bit of an extremist. It’s probably genetic. My dad invented what he called the “shit switch,” which is analogous to a mute button, except it predated the proliferation of IR remotes by twenty years or so, and was just a wall-mounted toggle-switch running from the easy-chair to the TV speaker.
Nope. Of course, once in a while a cool commercial will come along like the Honda “Cog” ad.
These ads are few and far between, though.
Obviously, most people don’t like commercials. However, I’ll take commercials over product placement any day.
Like most (I assume) there are probably 4 or 5 adverts that I like out of the hundreds that I hate.
I hate current advertising in general. It’s too pushy and dishonest. I won’t buy a certain car because the guy on the advert is orgasmic about driving it. If I were a woman I wouldn’t buy a particular shampoo because it has “new, active ingredient nitrohistaphetamegatoxohydrofalomine-b9 which makes your hair strong enough to break furniture it’s tied to” in it.
Most adverts are f**** ridiculous and so they actually put me off the advertised product.
I’m apathetic on the whole. Some commercials are nice, some others suck. 99.8% of the rest I can either take or leave.
I do appreciate movie trailers though. They help me keep abreast of what’s at the theatre and whether I shoudl see it or not.
I don’t mind them. They do make for convenient and predictable breaks which makes life easier—I can do laundry, go to the bathroom, etc. without having to miss any of a program. Beautiful women have a habit of being in commercials, which is nice as well. Sometimes they can be oppressive if they come too quickly. So generally they’re a benefit. Sometimes there’ll be good ones out that are very entertaining. So we’re better off with them, I guess.
In ~1983, the rising quantity and annoyance-factor of television commercials caused me to stop watching television. In the intervening 20 years I’ve seen perhaps 100 hours of television. Neither I nor my girlfriend has cable or antenna. (I think in an emergency I could probably tune a couple of local stations using “rabbit ears” well enough to get a snowy picture and adequate audio).
Given a choice between watching TV with commercials or watching TV in a room full of hungry mosquitos, the deciding factor would be the relative likelihood of West Nile virus in the area.
How masochistic the advertisers must be to pay hundreds of millions of dollars for something that they know everybody hates. Why do you suppose they do that?
I, myself, dislike about as many as I love, and am vastly indifferent by far to the majority of them.
I hate commercials, they are a necessary evil that I try to be as little exposed to as possible. I do watch a lot (too much) TV, but I am fanatical about hitting the mute button the instant a commercial break starts. And I’ve usually got my laptop in front of me, so I don’t have to even see them; I’ve gotten very skilled at knowing when the break will be over so that I can un-mute while still having to see as little of the commercials as possible.
When I do see/hear a TV commercial, I’m just constantly amazed at how inane they are, and how they could possibly sway large numbers of people to be favorable toward the product. I mean, how many of you have actually licked the door handle of a car because you just loved it so much and couldn’t bear the thought of anyone else getting into it?
I also despise the way advertisers are so manipulative, trying to play on factors other than the worth of the product. The worst trend in that area is the usage of older popular music to try to make people mentally link a song they like with some stupid product. A few years ago, Burger King was so bad at that, using so many songs in their commercials that I swore off patronizing them for good (and I do frequent fast food places, MacDonald’s, Jack in the Box, Wendy’s, etc., so it’s a meaningful boycott).
I have other examples of commercials having the opposite of their intended effect on me. I would never drive a Lexus or a BMW; if I won one in a contest I’d sell it. Their commercials are so pretentious, practically making their cars into things to be worshipped.
In contrast to dalej42, I’m far less bothered by product placement (at least as it currently exists) than commercials. It doesn’t bother me that Jeff Probst mentions the name “Ford Explorer” (or whatever it is; see how ineffective product placement is? I can’t even remember if Survivor gives away a Ford or a Chevrolet) eight times when they come to that part of the show, because that doesn’t insult my intelligence or blatantly try to manipulate me; it’s just emphsizing what they’re giving away. It also doesn’t bother me if a character in a show picks up a can of Coke, which was carefully placed so that the label is facing the camera. Again, it’s not insulting, and real people do drink Coke, after all. Now, when product placement gets to the point where the character picks up the Coke and then spends 30 seconds telling the other character how great Coke is, that’s when I’ll probably swear off TV altogether.
Am I the only one who likes alot of commercials that show on television and not just as a potty break either. I suppose I am weird because I also like to get to the movies in time to watch the first 10-20 minutes worth of previews and trailers. I was actually going to make a seperate thread on how much I enjoy good movie trailers and also how my movie experience isn’t complete unless I see all the movie trailers and ads that come on before the featured presentation.
I even used to watch the previews on home videos before 90 per cent of the movies I rented were on DVD.
Well, I like having a break to go to the bathroom or start a load of laundry or whatever, but most of the commercials themselves grate on my nerves. They’re stupid and insulting and they have no relation to the realities of life or the quality of the products. I see the VW ads about people leaping in front of rolling grocery carts or licking door handles, and I don’t think “Wow, if people love these cars so much, VW must be really fabulous.” No, I think “So what they’re saying is that only nutjobs buy their cars. Oooh, I think I’ll go buy a dozen. Not!”
As for whether or not you’re the only one who likes commercials, START, go to CS and start a thread on ads people hate and one on ads people like. Dollars to doughnuts, the one about ads people hate will get a lot more replies.
Tell me about it. Looking up at you with that impatient expression all the time – what a bringdown.
Moving this from IMHO to Cafe Society.
No, I don’t. The occasional ‘pretty funny’ commercial is more than cancelled out by the drone of the average ones and the horror of the really bad ones. I don’t even know what it’s for (some medication?), but if I hear this ad with this quivery-voiced woman singing a horrible version of “I’ve Got the World on a String” one more fucking time, I swear the streets will run red with the blood of the guilty.
Overall, I like commercials. Then again, I am an advertising student who hopes to work on commercials one day. 
That said, there are a lot of commercials out now I hate, and many more I find dull and forgettable. But when I see a really good commercial, like the VW “Pink Moon” and “Mr Blue Sky” ads, or the first run “Got Milk?” ads, or even the current OfficeMax “Rubberband Man” commercial, it’s art.
It annoys me that they take up over a quarter of the broadcast time. Sometimes, the commercials come so often it’s hard to follow the program.
Remember, the TV stations are not trying to sell products to you. After all, you aren’t giving money to the TV station. Instead, they are selling you, the audience, to the advertisers.
I despise all forms of advertising, even the advertising I do for my own business. (Believe me, it’s not easy to design effective marketing materials while holding your nose!)
Like many posters, I instantly mute all TV commercials as soon as they come on. I never ever listen to commercial radio, because the commercials are unbearable.
In short, my attitude about commercials is summed up by Alfred, the young janitor in Miracle on 34th Street: “Yeah, there’s a lot of bad ‘isms’ floatin’ around this world, but one of the worst is commercialism.” (Actually, he said, "one of the woist is commoishialism.) And that was in 1947, when they knew their isms.
Speaking of product placement, I might have enjoyed the new Tom Hanks/Steven Spielberg film, The Terminal, if it hadn’t been for absolutely relentless product placement. There wasn’t a frame of that film that didn’t have a Borders, Starbucks, or other corporate logo in it. It was awful.
In my perfect world the only place you’d see commercials would be in the yellowpages. I hate 'em all, from billboards to radio ads to skywriting.
Ah-ha! Pronoun trouble… I would love to have a hilarious reply right about now. I also wish I knew more about beautiful women com…um…er…I’ll quit now and cut my losses.