This is something that has been bothering me for a while and even though I discussed it with my family and friends, I though I would run this by TFW members. What is your stance on forced advertising? This is not the television commercials or advertisements in magazines (although getting out of control) but more so the apparent obsession of marketing companies to use anything and everything to get the message of the new product out. Some examples, - The Mall that I work in has public washrooms, above every urinal there are flat screen TVs that play commercials and movie previews, short things while you piss. - On some of the shopping carts that they have at the local Grocery story, there are little advertisements imbedded in the handles of the carts. - The television commercials that they play before the movie starts (not the previews, but the commercials that would be played any given night on TV. Sometimes the theater also has some running in the theater before the movie starts. I’m sure if you look hard enough there are (to) many examples everywhere. Why is it a problem? Marketing companies make money at the expense of consumers. A person should be able to take a piss without watching a commercial and the more ‘free space’ that is taken up by stupid ads for whatever, the less black space that we as consumers can look at. Any thoughts???
The regular comercials in movies bug me, but the others I don't mind. I haven't been in a place that actually had tvs in the bathroom for comercials, but i've been in places that have paper ads there.
Is it even forced advertising? In the examples you cited, it's not like anyone is strapping you down and holding your eyelids open while the ads are played on a continuous loop. Don't like the video screens in the bathroom? Stare at the ceiling or your junk while taking a whizz. Don't like the ads on the handle of your shopping cart? Put your hands over them while pushing. Commercials in the movie theater not your thing? Get to the cinema later than you normally would. Just tune it all out or let it fade into the background with all the billboards, corporate sponsorships, and other subtle attempts to get you to participate in the consumer-based society we live in.
Of course its not the glue your eyeballs open 'forced advertisements' but in a way, companies are making it harder and harder to let it fad into the background as you say. Perhaps it bothers me more that someone is making money of the idea that every part of my day is filled with advertisements. I accept TV commercials because I although I pay for cable, I don't pay for the shows, same with normal radio, Commercials run the business and make it some I can listen to the radio with out traditional 'paying' for it out of my wallet, but more so with my time, by listening to the commercials. This, I suppose, was standard for a time, but with the advent of commercialization, companies seemed fit to display there crap every where. If it is not limited, the normal human being will be further inundated with 'buy-this, buy that' that also creates an unhealthy obsession with the new current fashion, fad or whatever. No wonder our countries people are getting fatter and more in debt every day.
Technically, it isn't forced advertising as the poster says but its still annoying. I don't annoyed at the advertising you're talking about as much as the online ads. Pop-ups are the worst, especially when they pop up millions of times over and over crashing your system just so the visiting website can get ad revenues by sending visitors to other sites. Other annoying ads are the kinds that appear on top of web pages or slide across the page. Its getting to be where 70% of the webpage is ads with 30% actual content.
Honestly, I don't even notice most of those ads because I instinctively tune them out; they're little more than static in the background scenery. The only ones that really bug me are the excessive product placements in movies (ie - "I, Robot", which was basically a series of product placements with a movie in the background), which is one of my few major worries about the upcoming TF film. However, I think we're missing a segment of the blame for this. It's not solely due to the marketing companies, they're simply making use of an available ad space...space which is being provided by the owners of the respective establishments. The TVs above the mall urinals? Wouldn't be there if the mall didn't have a deal with the advertisers. Ads on cart handles? Wouldn't be there if the grocery store didn't have a deal with the specific advertisers whose products appear on the handles. Television commercials before movies? TBH, I'm not sure if that's a deal with the theatre chain or the movie studios, but there's some agreement involved. Marketing companies can't just put commercials wherever they like, they need the cooperation of the mall/theatre/studio/grocery store. As it stands, it's a great way for the mall/theatre/studio/store to make extra money, by renting out their dead space to advertisers. And no one (or very few people) complains to the [businesses] that host the ad(s), so there's very little negative side to the [business] host either.
Anyone notice how on TV the ads are usually about half as loud again as the scheduled shows nowadays? That really bugs.
As long as they don't start trying to take over my web browser, and open new ads over top of the page I'm trying to read, or redirect to a new page the add is on, that I have to click on to get to the page I was trying to get to. Oh, wait....
Adverts are probably the leading cause of attention deficit disorder. It's not a brain chemistry problem, it's just overstimulation. As you say, there are fewer and fewer blank spaces. Even in the classroom there are adverts in every direction, leading to reduced concentration and thus shortened attention spans. Add classroom overcrowding and growing reliance on pharmeceuticals and bam, you have a manufactured epidemic. And now I sound like a damn Scientologist.
The only times I don't like it is when it could be more subtle but they choose to hit you over the head with it. The one form of advertising that really bugs me is in movies. I don't mind if the main character is drinking a coke or just some generic looking can of soda, but what I don't want is the character to start talking about how good his refreshingly cold coca cola is. Now I have to go get me a coke.
The ones that really bug me are the ones before a movie. They have a seperate little projector and recycle the same garbage in about 8 minute invtervals. They have SceneIt Trivia stuff but it is all very recent crappy movies most people haven't seen. Give a lot of classic movies like Star Wars, Jaws, ET, etc.
Advertising in schools is certainly 'forced advertising'. You can mute the TV, show up late for the movie, etc., but school districts whoring out their students crosses way over the line, IMO. That all started with fucking Channel One, which my HS started getting a couple of years after it started. At the time, I just thought it was stupid since it was annoying older people trying to be 'hip' to their captive HS audience. It was passed off as a way to get 'news' to kids, but was, and is, really just a way to force them to watch commercials. Channel One, like a lot of things, simply does not exist without ad revenue. And, like a lot of other venues, it's not just the commercials anymore. Some of the 'news' is little more than advertising. But there's a looot more bullshit out there now..logos on the scoreboard, ads in the hallways, corporate-sponsored textbooks, fast-food joints in the cafeteria, advertising on buses, giant logos on the roof. Any one of those should have been unthinkable; collectively it's infuriating. American kids are already fucking stupid enough; they don't need their learning environment polluted with advertising that permeates the entire school day.
Channel One! I remember that crap, but they made us watch that in middle school instead of high school. The backs of my high school year books are full of color, highly glossy pages composed purely of ads. What makes it look really stupid is the fact that the ads look way better than any other page in the year book.
I don't mind public advertising, because it doesn't compromise anything. If you've got a monitor above your urinal, it probably means some suckers paid for it to get you a super nice urinal. Commercials on TV bug me though, it means the tv channels who show it are limited in what they broadcast by how commercialized the show is. I am so glad I live in a socialist democratic country where you can watch quality, even high-brow, TV without any advertising because the governement funds it. And no, we don't pay more taxes (well, a little more purchase tax...) for our free education, health insurance, quality TV and other social support. We just don't go to war very often.
I couldn't care about advertising whether if it's forced or not. Whenever there's a ad/commercial break, I change the channel. Wow, that is really stupid.
It started in like '89 or '90. We had it starting my sophomore year ('91-92). We came back from summer break and every room magically had a TV on the wall (that was part of the deal; agree to make your students watch this drivel, get a TV in every classroom for free). Every TV could be either tuned into the 'brain' and all show the same thing, or function individually. They started doing the morning announcements on the TVs instead of the PA, and that led into Channel One. So, basically, we had to watch people who aspired to be the dickheads on Channel One..before watching the dickheads on Channel One..for 20 minutes a day. Now, to be fair, Channel One provided the TVs, which enabled us to watch real news via CNN or the networks whenever something happened. One of my most vivid memories was junior year, going from class to class watching the shit hit the fan in Waco.
We had Channel One, too. But, my school rarely turned the TVs on. They were only on, if there was something the teacher wanted us to watch. They played movies on it, the last day of school, before Christmas vacation. I don't think Channel One got their money's worth, at Indian Lake.
One time Ted Turner came to my house and taped my eyelids open and made we watch commercials for Braves' games on TBS. He played Beethoven really loud in the background, too.
