# When will society rise to destroy this rabid corporate cramming of ads in our lives? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 25, 2005, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-society-rise-to-destroy-this-rabid-corporate-cramming-of-ads-in-our-lives/296120 "2005-03-25T00:48:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Chairman\_Pow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Chairman\_Pow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chairman_Pow)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2005, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-society-rise-to-destroy-this-rabid-corporate-cramming-of-ads-in-our-lives/296120/41 "2005-03-26T01:26:26Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > How often in my entire life do I need to buy a car or a bed? Maybe four or five times in what, 75 years? Well, here in the good ol’ USA, there are 300+million people. If each of them need to buy four beds in a lifetime, that’s about 1.2billion beds needed in (let’s assume that there’s a 100 year difference between the newest and oldest members of society) 100 years, so that’s 120 million beds/year. That’s 328,000ish beds per day. That’s one in a thousand people, or slightly less than half my neighborhood looking for beds in Chicago on any given day. I bought my queen size matress for $400ish so if that’s the average (for argument’s sake), there’s $131,000,000 of beds being bought every day in the US. Makes sense to run ads, no? Although I have to admit, I’m also perplexed by the sheer number of bed stores. I’ve been reading some “new marketing” (AFACT, my term) blogs recently out of a morbid sense of…I dunno, I think I just hate myself, but obvoiusly, they’re looking for, and finding, better ways of selling crap to us. I was going to put in a quote from one of my favorite bands (wherein the singer is an ex-marketing type) regarding marketing, but perhaps that would be in poor taste. ---
**Author:** ![Sarah\_Woodruff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sarah\_Woodruff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarah_Woodruff)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2005, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-society-rise-to-destroy-this-rabid-corporate-cramming-of-ads-in-our-lives/296120/42 "2005-03-26T02:29:58Z")
Adbreaks on TV? Mute button, cup of tea, toilet break. Or mute button, then make up the conversation the plonkers on the ad must be having… “Yes. I drive a Shitsubishi because I am a Collossal Wanker with a Tiny pair of gonads…Thats why I’m smiling like a Brainless Smarmy Git…” I just routinely turn up to the movie theatre 10 minutes or so later than the advertised “start” time… these days it’s running close to 30 minutes later by the time the film actually begins, though… :mad: There is a TV channel in Australia that routinely squeezes yet more ads onto the screen when credits are rolling for a program, thereby making the credits themselves so small as to be unreadable. Too bad if you want to know who the actors were! Does this happen elsewhere? ---
**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2005, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-society-rise-to-destroy-this-rabid-corporate-cramming-of-ads-in-our-lives/296120/43 "2005-03-26T02:34:49Z")
> [@Usram](#): > > Of course, when PVRs are widespread enough they’ll probably start running banner ads throughout the programme or something. [Ask, and you shall receive.](http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-et-tivo17nov17,1,7409270.story?ctrack=1&cset=true) > [@](#): > > By March, TiVo viewers will see “billboards,” or small logos, popping up over TV commercials as they fast-forward through them, offering contest entries, giveaways or links to other ads. If a viewer “opts in” to the ad, their contact information will be downloaded to that advertiser – exclusively and by permission only – so even more direct marketing can take place. > > By late 2005, TiVo expects to roll out “couch commerce,” a system that enables viewers to purchase products and participate in surveys using their remote controls. ---
**Author:** ![gardentraveler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gardentraveler/32/3576_2.png) [@gardentraveler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gardentraveler)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2005, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-society-rise-to-destroy-this-rabid-corporate-cramming-of-ads-in-our-lives/296120/44 "2005-03-26T03:17:35Z")
My personal favorite ads are the ones you’re subjected to here in the US when you try to talk to your credit card company. I got a replacement card today and had to call a number to activate it. At least this time they congratulated me on my new buying power before they proceeded to the ad. (Other times, I’ve had to stay on the line to confirm that my card was activated.) I hung up during the ad - hope my card still works. If not, they’re going to get some rather irate correspondence, because ALL I WANTED TO DO WAS ACTIVATE MY CARD!!! Got the same thing from the phone company when I changed my long distance service (at least I was changing to a long distance company that I only interact with online). On the plus side, I was actually speaking to a human being I could tell to stop selling me things and move on. On the minus side, she had the unmitigated gall to attempt a defense of the ads. I pretty much hung up on her. GT ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2005, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-society-rise-to-destroy-this-rabid-corporate-cramming-of-ads-in-our-lives/296120/45 "2005-03-26T03:47:09Z")
This societal uprsing is brought to you by Viagra. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2005, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-society-rise-to-destroy-this-rabid-corporate-cramming-of-ads-in-our-lives/296120/46 "2005-03-26T04:58:11Z")
> [@](#): > > In practice, though, many PVR users find that the things are so easy to use that you get out of the habit of watching programmes as they are broadcast, apart from things like sport and news which most people want to watch as they happen. There’s always something to watch on the hard disk. This is true. We just record everything when it plays in the late afternoon and then watch it in the evening (like, we just finished watching _Stargate_, which we taped at 5. It was on while we were watching the recording, too). We just have it set to tape all our favorite shows, and then we can watch them whenever we want. The little’uns have no concept of “time for their favorite show.” We’ve found it kind of cuts down on our total TV time, because if we don’t have something to watch, channel-surfing is too annoying–it’s full of ads. We read more now. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2005, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-society-rise-to-destroy-this-rabid-corporate-cramming-of-ads-in-our-lives/296120/47 "2005-03-26T05:56:25Z")
I suspect, however, that society will cease their uprising when Google starts charging 10 cents per a search. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Griffin-Kentzel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_griffin-kentzel/32/14787_2.png) [@Larry\_Griffin-Kentzel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Griffin-Kentzel)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2005, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-society-rise-to-destroy-this-rabid-corporate-cramming-of-ads-in-our-lives/296120/48 "2005-03-26T06:30:19Z")
You obviously meant to start this thread in [**IMHO**](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?f=12). I’ll move it for you. **Cajun Man** for the SDMB This message has been brought to you by [The Straight Dope Books](http://straightdope.com/otheroutlets/books.html). ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2005, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-society-rise-to-destroy-this-rabid-corporate-cramming-of-ads-in-our-lives/296120/49 "2005-03-26T12:01:20Z")
> [@Sage Rat](#): > > I suspect, however, that society will cease their uprising when Google starts charging 10 cents per a search. Bite.Your.Tongue. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-society-rise-to-destroy-this-rabid-corporate-cramming-of-ads-in-our-lives/296120.md?page=2)