Ok, I’ll admit I probably spend too much time watching television. The mute button helps when the overly loud commercials come on but still they leave me feeling some frustration. These are some of the things I have noticed:
1) If a new commercial features a sleeping baby so others must whisper, you can be sure another commercial for a different product will feature a sleeping baby so other participants whisper. Currently – at least two with entirely different products are airing.
2) And, yes . . . I know different camera angles can enhance the view but if I knew from the onset what product the commercial was touting, I might find this more inviting. Sometimes I try to guess what is being advertised only to find out at the end of the fascinating 30 seconds that what I have just seen seems to bear no relationship at all to what I am supposed to be encouraged to buy.
3) Production values of national commercials are often slicker than local ones. I feel sure it’s the amount of money spent that makes that so. And, I am sorry to say, many local ones feature owners and “real people” that couldn’t sell me a bottle of water in the desert. Just not convincing. National ones may have better production values but seldom anything really clever.
4) I find it interesting to keep count of every time the screen flashes a different image. The editors must really enjoy putting together these tiny pieces meant to impress. 20 images in 30 seconds? Seems to me that gives little time to consider the action. Is this a reason kids have such short attention spans?
5) I do enjoy many of the European commercials. Do they have a better sense of humor? Yearly there is broadcast a collection of the ‘best’ commercials of the year. Many are European – and one does not need to speak the language to laugh and get the message.
There are other aspects of commercials on tv I could mention but we will leave it for now. At least the commercials are catching my interest even though they provide me with no incentive to buy.
A better reason to write about this might be that it keeps me from commenting on politics.