Commercials: Our gift from the devil
An article in The Weekend Australian's 'Review' section on Saturday highlighted the absolute madness surrounding the utter crap that is chucked at us every single day in this crazy, crazy society.
I absolutely deplore, despise, hate, and am infuriated by advertising, and I am mainly referring to television advertising, ie. commercial breaks. The writer, Graeme Blundell, hit the nail on the head when describing this aspect of television. But even the word, 'aspect', seems inadequate when referring to TV commercials. It has absolutely taken over. Ad breaks are getting longer and louder. This is undeniable. The quality of the ads has also hit an all-time low. Ads aimed at being inspirational or humorous fail dismally. The constant portrayal of women as flawless, sexual goddesses; and men as dumb, uneducated losers is incredibly worrying.
I honestly try to avoid commercial television as much as I can. Not just because the quality of programming is total shit, but the ads are never-friggin'-ending. I'm going to single out Network Ten here: the worst of the lot. I am forever puzzled as to why they are not being seriously questioned on why, so very often, the ads run longer than the actual program does, and why when the ads begin, I suddenly can't hear myself think because some dickhead is screaming his lungs out in order to inform me that Super A-Mart is cutting 15% off all stock this weekend.
I can't speak on behalf of anyone else, but when I turn the TV on, I turn it on to watch the stuff that's in the TV guide. Certainly, I accept that commercial stations will have commercials (hence the name). But commercials that go for an eternity? Commercials that appear every five minutes? Commercials that yell at me? Commercials that are so not-funny that they are embarrassing? Commercials that even appear on the screen during the program itself, in fancy digital fashion, reminding us of the apparently-vital information that coming-up-next, the unbelievably-fake-looking members of Desperate Housewives will reveal an amazing secret?
I'm sorry for this cynicism. But I do honestly believe that television, in general - and primarily due to Networks Seven, Nine and the awful Ten - is sitting at a very low level currently. I blame the 'rise of reality', along with the ever-growing influence of companies wanting to get their pointless, unimaginative messages across to us. I admit that the majority would probably disagree with me.
We have been 'dumbed down' by all this shit on our television screens. I am not for a second suggesting that I never tune into the commercial TV stations. Indeed, they sometimes broadcast things that I like to watch (Ten rarely, rarely does this... But it has once or twice). But if things continue the way they are... the Australian accent will disappear, the level of societal intelligence will plummet, the amount of unnecessary cosmetic surgery will rise, etc. etc. etc...
This has been very pessimistic, very negative, very cynical. But I'm afraid that this is the only attitude I can adopt when discussing ads, ads, ads, ads, ads, ads, ads, ads, ads...
Long live the ABC and SBS. Whilst SBS recently began commercial advertising, at least these only appear in-between programs, and in minimal doses.
I'm sure it is only a matter of time before another blog-outburst like this. And probably on the very same subject. Think what you like, but opinions are opinions. And we are all entitled to them.
I absolutely deplore, despise, hate, and am infuriated by advertising, and I am mainly referring to television advertising, ie. commercial breaks. The writer, Graeme Blundell, hit the nail on the head when describing this aspect of television. But even the word, 'aspect', seems inadequate when referring to TV commercials. It has absolutely taken over. Ad breaks are getting longer and louder. This is undeniable. The quality of the ads has also hit an all-time low. Ads aimed at being inspirational or humorous fail dismally. The constant portrayal of women as flawless, sexual goddesses; and men as dumb, uneducated losers is incredibly worrying.
I honestly try to avoid commercial television as much as I can. Not just because the quality of programming is total shit, but the ads are never-friggin'-ending. I'm going to single out Network Ten here: the worst of the lot. I am forever puzzled as to why they are not being seriously questioned on why, so very often, the ads run longer than the actual program does, and why when the ads begin, I suddenly can't hear myself think because some dickhead is screaming his lungs out in order to inform me that Super A-Mart is cutting 15% off all stock this weekend.
I can't speak on behalf of anyone else, but when I turn the TV on, I turn it on to watch the stuff that's in the TV guide. Certainly, I accept that commercial stations will have commercials (hence the name). But commercials that go for an eternity? Commercials that appear every five minutes? Commercials that yell at me? Commercials that are so not-funny that they are embarrassing? Commercials that even appear on the screen during the program itself, in fancy digital fashion, reminding us of the apparently-vital information that coming-up-next, the unbelievably-fake-looking members of Desperate Housewives will reveal an amazing secret?
I'm sorry for this cynicism. But I do honestly believe that television, in general - and primarily due to Networks Seven, Nine and the awful Ten - is sitting at a very low level currently. I blame the 'rise of reality', along with the ever-growing influence of companies wanting to get their pointless, unimaginative messages across to us. I admit that the majority would probably disagree with me.
We have been 'dumbed down' by all this shit on our television screens. I am not for a second suggesting that I never tune into the commercial TV stations. Indeed, they sometimes broadcast things that I like to watch (Ten rarely, rarely does this... But it has once or twice). But if things continue the way they are... the Australian accent will disappear, the level of societal intelligence will plummet, the amount of unnecessary cosmetic surgery will rise, etc. etc. etc...
This has been very pessimistic, very negative, very cynical. But I'm afraid that this is the only attitude I can adopt when discussing ads, ads, ads, ads, ads, ads, ads, ads, ads...
Long live the ABC and SBS. Whilst SBS recently began commercial advertising, at least these only appear in-between programs, and in minimal doses.
I'm sure it is only a matter of time before another blog-outburst like this. And probably on the very same subject. Think what you like, but opinions are opinions. And we are all entitled to them.
posted by Anthony Stoddart @ 10:49 AM
1 Comments:
At Tue May 17, 08:55:00 PM,
Anonymous said…
Dear Anthony,
I do agree with most of your argument. However coming from the back ground of cultural theory- advertising performs an important function within today's socio-cultural climate. Although some ads are louder and with exception to these ads ( namely the Super A-Mart ones) some ads challenge human thought beyond that of any print media. It was only the other day that Co-Cola (which I now know is an Oligopoly) screened an add that depicted various forms of youth culture - it lasted for at least 3 minutes. It challenged sterotypes, ranging from punk rock to homosexuality. It was a narrative that many adolescents can relate to. I throughly enjoyed the ad and could see the value it had for today's youth culture. I feel it is important this type of media is balanced. Unfortunately todays advertising has not found this balance- but it is getting there.This ad was different - it had a clear purpose. It was an ad that made you reflect upon your own childhood and forced one to remember what is was like to be a child all over again. Put simply, it did what good advertising should do, which is to effectively place you with the subject matter.Recruit you as part of it. All in all, yes many ads are nonsensical however some do make us laugh,make us cry, and the effective ones make us more aware of difference. And yes, there will be those who will argue that the very stereotypes challenged in the Cocola ad is irrelevant because Cocola is a multinational and is only out to make a buck. But we must remember that is humans who create these ads. Therefore ads are products of human creativity. And maybe it is a minority that I am speaking of, but ads an important part of our cuture regardless of what country you live in. They document the cultural icons of that era in a visual language. So next time you are watching television, watch carefully and attempt to try and understand what the purpose of the ad is- who is interpolated by it? It is quite an interesting experiment indeed and one worth doing if you appreciate today's form of popular culture.
happy ad watching to you all
Linus
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