TV Adds How Stupid do they Think We are?

[Keith Outten]

During the MSNBC news show from 10:45am till 11:00am this morning I set my stopwatch and there was a total of 9 minutes and 15 seconds of commercials out of the 15 minute period.
Considering that I pay for cable TV the cost per program minute must be even more expensive than my monthly bill would lead me to believe.

I plan to do some more research during some prime time programing this evening to see if the ratio of programing to commercials is the same. I'm afraid that I will not be pleased with the data I collect.

If I consider the topic of this thread concerning how stupid we are to pay the outrageous fees to watch intellectually insulting and uninformed advertising I am not proud of myself.
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[Brian Elfert]

A guy I know is a pharmacist. He said that he did many drug trials during college to pay his bills. They basically put up a bunch of college kids in dorm type facilities for a few days and gave them the drug. He said the drug company had to report any symptoms any of the trial participants reported as a possible side effects of the drug. He said a lot of the college students drank heavily before going to the trials so many of them had headaches, nausea, and other symptoms from what they did before the drug trial. These symptoms still had to be reported as a possible side effect of the drug.

Seems silly to me, but that is what he told me.

[Phil Thien]

Considering that I pay for cable TV the cost per program minute must be even more expensive than my monthly bill would lead me to believe.

Oh gosh I had never thought of it that way. Ugh.

[Brian Elfert]

During the MSNBC news show from 10:45am till 11:00am this morning I set my stopwatch and there was a total of 9 minutes and 15 seconds of commercials out of the 15 minute period.
Considering that I pay for cable TV the cost per program minute must be even more expensive than my monthly bill would lead me to believe.

I record every show I watch on my DVR. I never watch any TV "live". A one hour show typically takes about 45 minutes to watch when the commercials are skipped. I figure the show itself is about 42 to 43 minutes figuring that it takes some time to skip through the commercials. That means that a one hour show has about 17 to 18 minutes of commercials.

[David Weaver]

During the MSNBC news show from 10:45am till 11:00am this morning I set my stopwatch and there was a total of 9 minutes and 15 seconds of commercials out of the 15 minute period.
Considering that I pay for cable TV the cost per program minute must be even more expensive than my monthly bill would lead me to believe.

I plan to do some more research during some prime time programing this evening to see if the ratio of programing to commercials is the same. I'm afraid that I will not be pleased with the data I collect.

If I consider the topic of this thread concerning how stupid we are to pay the outrageous fees to watch intellectually insulting and uninformed advertising I am not proud of myself.
.

Keith, I think you'll find that it makes more sense to browse headlines for 15 minutes, that's what I found (and cancelled all of my expanded cable - the news on any cable network now is so sensationalized and so much editorial type stuff that it's not really news). Of course, the fact that it's mostly commercials will make it even easier to make that decision.

Another thing that has really turned me off from news is that the more it's gotten focused toward national and international, the more "baby dies" stories we get and the less we get that's meaningful to us wherever we are. By "baby dies" story, I mean every time someone leaves a baby in a car and it dies anywhere in the US (or elsewhere sometimes), it becomes a front and center story. It's a headline getter, and if you have small children or grandchildren, it's selected to make you feel absolutely awful and keep you tuned in. It *does* make you feel absolutely awful to get one story like that after another, and , to me, makes my day worse and not better or more informed.

Same thing happens on the internet now, though, too - "recommended" news links are based on whatever generates the most clicks, and it's often awful stuff well beyond the normal this person shot that person kind of stuff. To boot, the topic shown in the link is often only about 50% correct to whatever the actual story is, and then the story probably isn't very accurate, either.

Thomas Jefferson's quote about newspapers applies to all of it.

[Mel Fulks]

There is an electronic process that speeds up the film to make more time for commercials but does so without changing
sound pitch. Saw something on television about it and they demonstrated by showing the good bye scene from CASSABLANCA. Gives a different feel, but the voices are exactly the same. And ,of course,there are also the practices of
showing shortened versions, and running more commercials toward the 'exciting conclusion'.

[Jim Rimmer]

I find it hilarious that currently you can see a commercial for the "Low T" drugs followed by the comercial for the lawyer that is suing on your behalf if you have ever used "Low T' drugs.

[Kev Williams]

My peeve is that car companies pay for at least half of all commercial advertising. Keep track-- I'll bet you'll find at LEAST 4 out of every 10 commercials is for a car, or a car dealer. It's no wonder a $7,000 Kia cost's $13,500...

[Andrew Joiner]

During the MSNBC news show from 10:45am till 11:00am this morning I set my stopwatch and there was a total of 9 minutes and 15 seconds of commercials out of the 15 minute period.

.

Wow, so it's mostly commercials.

[Jerry Thompson]

I stay calm. My coloring books have no adds in them.

[glenn bradley]

It's a crazy world.
What's your pet peeve about adds?

I would just modify your title to say "TV - How Stupid do they Think We are?" The advertisements don't specifically insult me however, 98% of television does. When we fell for paying for TV and accepted commercials after we had already paid to watch the shows, that's when they knew they had us

[Chuck Wintle]

Ever notice when the ad starts the volume goes up? This is on purpose to catch the viewers attention. the same commercial twice in a row...not a mistake by done on purpose to reinforce the message. Many TV shows use a concept called product placement..the big bang theory comes to mind when they use DELL laptops such that the brand name cannot be missed. How about the timing for restaurants ads....designed to make you hungry to go out for food. There is so much science behind ads and how best to get the consumer dollar. I don't like the drug companies and their advertising...it should be illegal to market direct to the consumer. Maybe it might be a really good idea to permanently shut off the television...we are all guinea pigs for them.

[David Weaver]

The biggest loser was the worst show I've ever seen for product placement. They would go into some long verbal dialogue about how great some product was, and then instead of having a box or two or a pack or two of what they were talking about, there would be a mountain of it and they'd have the competitors vouching for it, too. It was disgusting. I have no problem with commercials and commercialism, but when they try to pass them off as general opinions of people without mentioning that they were either compensated or it was required as part of their contract, it's disgusting.

[Moses Yoder]

I honestly can't remember when I last saw an ad on TV. I did not watch the super bowl the past couple years so it may have been the super bowl party two years ago. We subscribe to Netflix and have a shelf with about 500 DVD's, split between TV shows and movies.

[Chuck Wintle]

I honestly can't remember when I last saw an ad on TV. I did not watch the super bowl the past couple years so it may have been the super bowl party two years ago. We subscribe to Netflix and have a shelf with about 500 DVD's, split between TV shows and movies.

you are ahead of the pack then...