Advertisements defeat purpose and scare listeners away

Does anyone remember a time when a person could just go on YouTube and look at videos of cats or people falling for the evolution of dance without having to wait for that 15-second commercial before the video? Or even just going to the movies where the biggest hassle was sitting through the 15 minutes of previews instead of JC Penny’s advertisements, or someone trying to sell you a car you don’t need?

Call it nostalgia, or me just being bitter, but I miss those days. The days when I could just go to Yahoo! News and see the obviously-not-newsworthy top stories without worrying about an ad jumping in my face. 

Yeah, ads do that now. They used to stay in their nice square boxes where you could just contently ignore them, but now they move outside the box and get all up in your screen. What’s the deal?

And have you ever noticed that when you’re watching a show on the TV, you have the volume at a good setting when the show is on, but once it cuts to commercial the sound “mysteriously” jumps up to an uncomfortably loud volume? Not only is that inconvenient (because then you have to mess with the settings, and it’ll never be as good as it was before) but I’m pretty sure it’s planned.

Oh, but I’m not done. Let me give just another example or two before I get to the point of this. Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like whenever I turn on the radio to go somewhere, I get to listen to one, maybe two songs before 15 minutes of commercials that all have an awful jingle in the background where people are obviously singing out of tune start to play. And then there’s Spotify (which I love,) but did you notice that if you turn your volume down on certain commercials, it’ll just pause the whole thing? 

I’m all for advertising, but I feel like companies need to do it with a little more respect. I don’t want ads jumping in my face or people yelling at me to buy a Sham-Wow. I mean, are manners dead? Maybe if they’d lower the volume a bit and not yell at me, or at least have a good song as background music (really, the ones they have now are dreadful), then maybe I’d consider buying something. 

Why can’t it be the Superbowl advertisements all year around? Why does it just have to be this time of year? Why are there commercials at a movie theater when there’s already previews and the pre-movie ads? They don’t need the money; they’re already charging me an arm and a leg to see Batman in IMAX (completely worth it though.)

And now, Facebook is tailoring the advertisements you see based on what you like. So I get a personalized set of what people are trying to sell me, and I’m not sure how to feel about that. They just need to back off and stop trying to get me to sign up for Chemistry.com and eHarmony (come on Facebook, you’re just like my mother.)

If you look around, you’ll see that advertisements and commercialism are everywhere. There’s posters, fliers, signs, memes, slogans and bad jingles at every turn. There’s always a sponsor or promoted group on social sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Next time you watch “The Big Bang Theory,” notice that there’s a hidden agenda behind Sheldon pulling out specifically Purell hand sanitizer. 

Bottom line: I guess there’s no way to avoid advertisements. One day I hope to go into a profession that deals with advertising, but I’d like to think that it’ll get better and won’t be so in-your-face about it. I’m not going to stop watching my TV shows or stop watching “Pitch Perfect” for the 10th time (anyone else notice there were Apple products everywhere and “Bulletproof” was played every five minutes?), but I can appreciate the subtle product placements and clever ads.

Word to the wise—be careful where you click on the Internet. You never know, one second you could just be trying to watch a video and then the next you’ll have someone trying to sell you a wife from overseas.