TVSquad

If I cannot skip ads on my DVR, for which I pay a hefty monthly fee to be able to use the damned thing, then I assure you that I shall keep and use my VCR so that I can skip ads.

Reply

Advertisers are doing what ever they can to annoy the heck out of viewers, that is why NO one watches commercials anymore. Make them 1/2 decent and we might stick around. I just don't want what happened in Vegas a few years ago, they had a commercial start with-in the show itself. I found that to be very deceiving and I was PO'd at the producers of Vegas for letting that happen.

There is no way they can stop us for skipping commercials. If they do, then as Jason said, we bring back the VCR's and skip them that way. We are being bombarded by advertising every time we turn around, we are paying way to much in Cable fees as it is, give us a break already!

Reply

I think the answer really is that we need good, entertaining commercials. The Mac commercials are the perfect example. If I'm skipping commercials and one of them pops up, I ALWAYS stop to see if it is a new one. And then, even if it's one I have seen, I will still watch it again because they are so good. AND I AM A PC GUY!!!

Reply

Adam, I can't agree with you completely on this one. I don't watch tv for the ads, I watch it for the shows.

I know they need to support themselves but I'm not interested in sitting through ads and don't see it as my "viewer duty" to have products and services pushed on me that I am not interested in.

I went back to watching live tv because there was no way to skip the ads watching via the internet. Since I don't have one of them dang fancy DVRs yet, at least I can do something else during the commercial break.

I will conceed though there are some clever commercials but they are usually few and very far between and not worth sitting through the endless parade of idiocy called advertising.

Reply

Personally, an ad campaign I will always stop fast-forwarding to watch are the "Get A Mac" ads. They are always entertaining to me, plus I love both Justin Long and John Hodgman. (ESPECIALLY Hodgman.)

Reply

Have you ever taken a look at the length of a one hour episode of tv.

In the 70's that 1 hour episode was approximately 54 minutes. By the end of the 80's it was down to 52 minutes. By the end of the 90's it was down to 46 minutes. In 2007, it is down to 42 minutes.

This means that there are 3 times more commercials than 30 years ago. Is it any wonder that we are sick of commercials.

Personally, I download all of my shows just so I can watch them when I want and without commercials. I still pay for cable but I couldn't tell you the last time that I actually watched a show while it was actually airing on television .... other than live sports.

Reply

For the most part- I don't mind commercials, but I do skip most of them because I enjoy watching a show beginning-to-end without a break.

It's the interruption of continuity- not the content of commercials that annoys me.

Make better commercials and group them together at the end of the show- and I'd probably watch them.

Reply

The catch 22 is: eventually, when we are all timeshifting shows and skipping the ads, no one will advertise on television. The revenue from those ads which support not only the paychecks of those at the networks but the shows themselves and,more importantly,support the failures so new shows can be tried every year (despite how bad you might think they are). If advertisers don't pay to advertise, the quailty of programming will drop to Food Network levels. You won't be able to watch your favorite shows on DVD because no one will make them.
This is a very slippery slope. Televsion has become, truly, where art and commerce meet. In the 80's, art went home, in the new millenium, commerce is leaving. So, what to do?
Most people have the right idea. Make better spots. Not just filler spots. Trouble is, the suits and clients took over the ad industry around the time of the actor's strike (a truly justified one, by the way) and all creativity went out the window, along with the creators who were paid so handsomely to come up with ideas that we all remember from our youth.
Now, the trend is toward a combo that I think is perfect: funny/memorable ads + recurring characters. That way, if we like, say, the Mac ads, or the Geico ads (I love them) or even the old Sprint ads, we might just stop and take a looksee at what they are saying.
The ads need to become little recurring episodes. Some are realizing this, others are not. Let's hope, for all of our sakes, that the ones who do make more and better ads.
Trust me, we need them.

Reply

"Personally, an ad campaign I will always stop fast-forwarding to watch are the "Get A Mac" ads."

And for me, on occasions where I just have my TV on in the background and can't be bothered to fast forward through commercials, those ads are the only ones that make me drop everything and dive for my remote.

Reply

They need more lizards, frogs and ducks. people love those commericals.

Reply

I love the Mac commercials (preferring Macs over PCs, so yes I am biased), but I love a lot of the other commercials. Make good catchy commercials and people will stop and watch.

My list of favorites:
Mac Ads
Hardee's Milkshake (with the guy and the cow)
PetSmart one with 'Bobo' (the dachshund and the dirty toy)

The Petsmart commercial is a PERFECT explain (for me) to what a commercial is supposed to do, invoke emotion and make you want to buy the product. Owning two wiener dogs myself, this commercial did its job. After I saw it, I wanted to go buy that dog toy immediately. If the advertising people would stop and make good catchy commercials then, the DVR would no longer be a problem. I stop to watch these, because they are good and worth my time to watch. Crappy commercials like the Snicker's man kiss, would get skipped every time.

Commercials are just like TV shows. Make something worth watching, and people will watch. Make a pile of crap, and you will be left with a stain on your carpet.

Reply

I like the GE one second theater commercials. If you look at the end watching live it flashes a lot of info if you pause and play it back frame by frame it's tells a little story. It's like finding a DVD easter egg. TiVo did a little specail about them a couple years ago and GE still puts the stuff at the end.

Reply

I agree with the other post that the Mac ads are the more watchable these days. The ads that mix in laughs are the best. (i.e. Where's the BEEF!) Though I'm not going to drop my PC for a Mac regardless.
Maybe if they made a ad serial where you wanted to watch it to see how the story ends. Ford does it great with American Idol also.

Reply

I think they should just say what the product is then explain what it does and convince us in just 15 seconds. I don't car about how the commercial is done or who is in it. I care more about the tv show I am watching. They should make a channel for each major tv company and just show the ads on there and not even have ads on the actual channels. A thirty min show isn't even thirty minutes anymore...unless of course you count the ads. Heck even do some kind of weather channel thing and just scroll text ads every few minutes.

Reply

It's not just that commercials need to be interesting but I need to stop seeing the same commercial 50 times during a single one hour show.

Reply

Forcing ads like this is Soviet Russia is wrong. They need to make better ads. Sometimes I will on purpose scan back to see a commercial that caught my eye. It can be done (get people to wach commercials without being fascist about it)

Reply

IN SOVIET RUSSIA ADS WATCH YOU!!!!!

Reply

Marketers have no one but themselves to blame for this. People are going to learn how to tune out or actively seek ways to avoid advertising if they are constantly being bombarded by it.

Reply

$250 a year for 8 tv channels, 10 national radio stations and about 40 local ones, all without commercials? Makes me wish I was back in the UK.

Otherwise I hardly ever watch tv as broadcast - as glassfrequency said, it's the continuity (or lack of it) that's the problem, not the commercials themselves. That plus being shouted at by local car dealerships every five minutes....

Reply

yeah, fuck you commercials!!!!!11111

Reply