# Sick of being advertised at... **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 26, 2000, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-of-being-advertised-at/6203 "2000-04-26T14:02:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cantara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6f9a4e/32.png) [@cantara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cantara)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2000, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-of-being-advertised-at/6203/1 "2000-04-26T14:02:00Z")
Okay, I posted this as a response in General Questions, but I got worked up. From [Adbusters](http://www.adbusters.org) magazine: > [@](#): > > **CBS Falsifies News** > Last autumn, techie entrepreneur Denny Wilkinson was promising a new era of TV sports and sitcoms with ads “embedded in the magic of the game or the magic of the show.” Just months later, his firm is also adding “magic” to the news. > The _CBS Early Show_, _Evening News_ and _48 Hours_ magazine have been using “virtual ads” since November 1999. Working with Wilkinson’s company Princeton Video Image, the network is using digital editing to insert virtual CBS ads during real-life broadcasts. The most notorious use came during New Year’s Eve reports from Times Square where NBC and Budweiser ads loomed of the partying crowd. Through computer editing, CBS viewers saw a CBS “billboard” that covered the competitors. > CBS producer Steve Friedman says the altered reality “does not distort the content of the news,” adding that the station would continue to push the virtual logo envelope. “We haven’t even scratched the surface of its uses yet,” said Friedman. > Which takes us back to Wilkinson, who, as of last autumn, had yet to hear a single consumer complaint about a technology that even the editors of Ad Age magazine warned could spark “a new level of commercialism” in television. > Time to check the mailbag, Mr. Wilkinson. “These virtual billboards demonstrate that nothing - not even reality itself - is safe from creeping commercialism,” said Frank Vespe, executive director of TV-Free America. Vespe’s group, joined by the Ralph Nader affiliate Commercial Alert, is calling CBS news “fundamentally untrustworthy,” and has launched a viewer boycott. This technology is also being used in sitcoms and TV shows that are sponsored by a particular company. The company’s logos are seen in the original broadcast (and presumably the mid-season reruns), but changes the product placements for syndication. Now, given the fact that in the middle of entertainment, our time is being used to ‘encourage’ us to purchase the same product that our favourite characters are using, I feel like I should be billing the advertisers for my time watching their product being used. [movie rant] Movies are a different matter. With the 10-15 minutes of commercials at the beginning and the product placements (usually blatant), I am considering creating an invoice to hand to the theatre manager for my time spent being advertised to. I am paying for the entertainment, not for someone to be in my face selling me stuff. [/movie rant] [telemarketer rant] see good points in the telemarketer thread… [/telemarketer thread] [junk mail rant] sick of having my mailbox full of direct mail marketing and fliers. The “No fliers” signs don’t seem to help. I heard about one person who put a notice above her mailbox that stated that there would be a charge for all unsolicated mail. She charged her time to open and read the mail, and storage costs for hanging on to it. She then sent invoices to the advertisers. Some ignored them, so she sent reminder notices. Some called up furious that they would be billed. Some actually PAID! Good idea, no? [/junk mail rant] Problem is, I’m just not a confrontational kinda guy, so I just come here and bitch. Maybe I’ll get up the nerve to go ahead with some of these ideas. Anyone else try to stike back at the people who use up your valuable time to tell you about something that they think you need? ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2000, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-of-being-advertised-at/6203/2 "2000-04-26T14:38:00Z")
Well, if it’s a choice between being advertised at and having to \ pay for things like television programming, I’d go for the advertising. It suits my lifestyle as a poor college student better. ---
**Author:** ![SingleDad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9e8a1a/32.png) [@SingleDad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SingleDad)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2000, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-of-being-advertised-at/6203/3 "2000-04-27T05:19:00Z")
Advertising is a necessary and integral part of a consumerist and capitalist society. Advertising in the _news_ is unethical and insupportable. When I see a news story, I want _facts_. If it’s not facts, it’s not news, and it’s _fraud_ to represent it as such. I don’t care what your interpretation of the content is, I want a clear and obvious demarcation between factual information presented (photographs, video and quotes), interpretation (commentary and description), and advertising. Ads at the movies piss me off. I understand that they need revenue to make money, but it irks me to pay directly _and_ have to sit through ads. NPR irks me for the same reason. They run ads between the shows (this show was brought to you by ADM, Supermarket to the World). Even worse, one month out of three there’s no news at all, just incessant mind-numbing beg-a-thons, It must work since they stay in business, but I’ll be damned before I give my money in response to such an intelligence-insulting and time-wasting plea. * * * Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2000, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-of-being-advertised-at/6203/4 "2000-04-26T18:10:00Z")
**SingleDad** : Have you seen a doctor about that knee? It seems to be jerking a bit. 😉 > [@](#): > > NPR irks me for the same reason. They run ads between the shows (this show was brought to you by ADM, Supermarket to the World). Agreed. It’s a pain in the ass. I see the same thing on PBS as well these days. Bleech. > [@](#): > > Even worse, one month out of three there’s no news at all, just incessant mind-numbing beg-a-thons Hmm. 'Round here it’s only twice a year, for a week at a time. I imagine you were hyperbolizing, but I just suffered through a pledge drive and it only _felt_ like it lasted for a month. > [@](#): > > It must work since they stay in business, but I’ll be damned before I give my money in response to such an intelligence-insulting and time-wasting plea. It _does_ work. But how else should they do it? What would get people to give? I don’t see how it’s intelligence-insulting, personally. One friend of mine who worked for a PBS affiliate put it this way: It’s not the pledge drive _per se_ which gets people to give. It’s the fact that for a couple week, everytime they turn on PBS, they hear it. For a lot of people, this helps them realize just _how often_ they turn on PBS and how much use they get out of it. -andros- (who’s feeling just a leeetle superior for mailing out his check to NPR this week) ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2000, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-of-being-advertised-at/6203/5 "2000-04-26T19:57:00Z")
> [@](#): > > NPR irks me for the same reason. Actually, I consider non-commercial underwriting a refreshing change from in-your-face screaming at the top of their lungs ads. They have very stringent rules about what you can and can’t say. For example, if giving out a phone number, you can’t say “CALL 1-800-xxxxxx.” That’s a “call to action.” Instead you have to say “you can reach us at 1-800-xxxxx” or something to that effect. > [@](#): > > Advertising is a necessary and integral part of a consumerist and capitalist society. There’s a difference between shows supporting themselves and being money-grubbing gluttons who don’t give a fuck about what they’re putting on the air as long as the main character has a Pepsi in hand and in full view. Not only is there more product placement on TV, but the regular commercial breaks are longer than they’ve ever been and far more expensive than they’ve ever been thanks to the boon of Internet retailer ads. As time goes by, I find myself watching less and less TV, so maybe the constant ads are a good thing. They’re making me ignore the mind-numbing nonsense and crack open books more often. ---
**Author:** ![cantara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6f9a4e/32.png) [@cantara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cantara)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2000, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-of-being-advertised-at/6203/6 "2000-04-27T12:47:00Z")
Oh, yeah, ads during TV shows… Okay, I accept some level of advertising and commercial breaks. The number of shows that are extending their commercial breaks to **6 minutes** at a time by coming back to the show and putting a commercial for their next broadcast/next story and going away to commercial again. News magazines are ridiculous for this, and my local evening news has also started doing this. I need to get a TV that has a “commercial skip” function on it. You press it for 30-second increments and it allows you to channel surf until the timer counts down, when it goes back to the original channel. …has anyone seen an ad for one of these?