Sledgehammer Ads
A few minutes ago I opened an article on internet that sounded interesting. As I let it load, I looked at something else. Suddenly, the computer started speaking. I jumped in my chair, startling one of the cats. They did it again. I wish it were a pixie in the computer because it would have been simpler than the commercial it turned out to be. The article had an imbedded advertisement video.
Normally, when I pull up an article and I notice the connection slows down, I go to the article and find a video is downloading. I try to find a way to stop it, but not all ads let you do so. Sometimes, it overloads my internet server and everything stops. Then I get the message of "No responde". If, after a minute or two it doesn't go away, I have to shut all the pages I have open. I have read somewhere that the powers that be in internet are planning to do away with those commercial-ads. I hope they do so before ten years elapse.
I suppose they have descended to bombarding us on internet because in areas where internet is faster and more available, people are watching less and less television. (I don't blame them.) Also, because I suppose they have reached a limit on all the commercial air time that can be suctioned from anything shown on television. Now, when they cut to commercials, the channel you're on will generally say how long they will take, anywhere from two to seven minutes. There is one channel, though, that at certain hours of the day, shows up to ten or fifteen minutes of commercials. We can't receive that channel now, thanks to antenna reception, but when we could, we would be watching something and then the commercials would come on. We would talk, get up and get something, sit down, wander around, etc. As soon as what we were watching would come on, we would feel like we had no idea what it was we had been watching. Once upon a time, we would zap at the commercials. Now that most channels are run by the same companies, they synchronize and show the commercials at the same time, so you can't run away from them. I have learned to ignore the television while it's on commercials, so if someone mentions commercial this or that, I have no idea which one they're talking about.
Companies see us not as intelligent consumers who buy what they need and therefore need to be told about all the advantages of their product, but as emotional animals who must be taught to buy as much as possible. They try to appeal to our emotions and create needs out of thin air. Yes, they always have tried to do that, but in these later years, it seems that is the only type of advertisement you will find. I remember advertisements from my childhood where they would mix emotions with reasons, and list credible reasons why their product was superior. Now, when you go to buy something, it's almost blindly, because it is increasingly more difficult to find any kind of objective comparisons between products. We are being treated as laboratory mice and being led from one place to the other with a piece of cheese.
I have long since learned that I need what I need, not what a big anonymous company says I need. Yes, I like having new things and new technology, but if it's not necessary, I don't care what some commercial tells me. And what I need to buy doesn't have to be brand name, either. If the house brand fits my needs, then that's what I get, and I don't pay extra just for a famous name, be it food, clothes, or technology. Books, too, have wonderful publicity stunts. But it's not the first time that I buy the book that's being exposed in every bookstore window to find that it's poorly written or simply boring. In publicity stunts for best-sellers is where I will probably fall, but at least some of that money is going to a person who has worked to create something and not just the publishing company.
It's becoming increasingly difficult to hide from ads and commericials and appeals to buy the latest product, but I have learned to put on blinders. Sometimes they'll slip a little, but I always put them back in place. And there are news agencies that I will stop following if they don't stop putting pixies in my computer.
Normally, when I pull up an article and I notice the connection slows down, I go to the article and find a video is downloading. I try to find a way to stop it, but not all ads let you do so. Sometimes, it overloads my internet server and everything stops. Then I get the message of "No responde". If, after a minute or two it doesn't go away, I have to shut all the pages I have open. I have read somewhere that the powers that be in internet are planning to do away with those commercial-ads. I hope they do so before ten years elapse.
I suppose they have descended to bombarding us on internet because in areas where internet is faster and more available, people are watching less and less television. (I don't blame them.) Also, because I suppose they have reached a limit on all the commercial air time that can be suctioned from anything shown on television. Now, when they cut to commercials, the channel you're on will generally say how long they will take, anywhere from two to seven minutes. There is one channel, though, that at certain hours of the day, shows up to ten or fifteen minutes of commercials. We can't receive that channel now, thanks to antenna reception, but when we could, we would be watching something and then the commercials would come on. We would talk, get up and get something, sit down, wander around, etc. As soon as what we were watching would come on, we would feel like we had no idea what it was we had been watching. Once upon a time, we would zap at the commercials. Now that most channels are run by the same companies, they synchronize and show the commercials at the same time, so you can't run away from them. I have learned to ignore the television while it's on commercials, so if someone mentions commercial this or that, I have no idea which one they're talking about.
Companies see us not as intelligent consumers who buy what they need and therefore need to be told about all the advantages of their product, but as emotional animals who must be taught to buy as much as possible. They try to appeal to our emotions and create needs out of thin air. Yes, they always have tried to do that, but in these later years, it seems that is the only type of advertisement you will find. I remember advertisements from my childhood where they would mix emotions with reasons, and list credible reasons why their product was superior. Now, when you go to buy something, it's almost blindly, because it is increasingly more difficult to find any kind of objective comparisons between products. We are being treated as laboratory mice and being led from one place to the other with a piece of cheese.
I have long since learned that I need what I need, not what a big anonymous company says I need. Yes, I like having new things and new technology, but if it's not necessary, I don't care what some commercial tells me. And what I need to buy doesn't have to be brand name, either. If the house brand fits my needs, then that's what I get, and I don't pay extra just for a famous name, be it food, clothes, or technology. Books, too, have wonderful publicity stunts. But it's not the first time that I buy the book that's being exposed in every bookstore window to find that it's poorly written or simply boring. In publicity stunts for best-sellers is where I will probably fall, but at least some of that money is going to a person who has worked to create something and not just the publishing company.
It's becoming increasingly difficult to hide from ads and commericials and appeals to buy the latest product, but I have learned to put on blinders. Sometimes they'll slip a little, but I always put them back in place. And there are news agencies that I will stop following if they don't stop putting pixies in my computer.
If I am playing a computer game and an adverb interrupts I can guarantee I will never, ever use that product and will tell people why I hate it. Revenge sayeth the DL
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