Honestly. I used to watch my dad have like 4 channels he could switch between so he didn’t have to do commercials. I used to think that was weird, and indicative of some poor character traits. I was a judgemental little shit.
Now this meme is me. I have become my father.
Turns out nobody wants to watch commercials. The cycle repeats itself.
And you can’t do this anymore, at least with broadcast TV. My local diner as a bunch of TV’s on about the place, all tuned to the local Fox, CBS, NBC, etc. affiliates so you have the rare opportunity to see them all at once. They’re all timed so their commercial breaks coincide with one another. It’s down to the split second – every channel goes to commercial at the same time, for the same length of time. It has to be intentional.
That was mostly the case in the 90s as well. On the 30m mark, everything was wrapping up / starting at the same time. In the middle, you might have 30-90 seconds of a show on another channel that was throwing to commercial at a slightly different time.
This is why TBS always started programs at five past the half hour. When the program was finished you would have missed the first five minutes of any program on another network thus encouraging you to stay tuned to TBS .
I had a TV with picture-in-picture. That was a great feature for avoiding commercials.
Used to have it down to a science. 03 Global > 25 YTV > 28 Fox > 32 Spike TV > 44 Comedy Network > 45 Teletoon > 47 TBS > 50 Space
I never had to see a commercial
I did the same thing and I thought it’s pretty normal. You can tell your 90s self that if it makes them feel good
I sometimes attempt to do that with Pluto TV, but they really enforce putting ads at the same time in almost all the channels.
-The break meant that there would be at least 15 minutes of no ads after
-During that long break you had the ability to empty your bladder, or get more snacks
-You didn’t get repeats of ads during that singular break
-The ads weren’t targeted to you specifically, but targeted to the viewers of the show you were watching
-The advertisers saw value in “quality over quantity”
i agree, advertisements used to be way less intrusive and therefore they were more tolerable
I am watching sitcoms from the 70s and you notice that they last for 25-26 minutes instead of 22 minutes.
Oh my God the repeating ads really are what makes it so much worse. Whenever I watch something on Hulu I have to sit through the same three commercials and it becomes completely mind numbing. Cable had more variety since it wasn’t as targeted.
I’ve never been able to see the point of repeated ads. If I didn’t want the thing 30 seconds ago I’m still not going to want it now. PTL for 30s jump forward, not even fastforwarding ads these days.
I know your question is probably rhetorical, but the answer is that advertising isn’t really about persuading people to buy something specific. Its about creating an association in people’s brains, so that the next time you think about toilet paper, your brain automatically thinks “Charmin” and your decision making changes from “what brand should I buy” to “why not Charmin”.
The more times they yell it at you, the stronger the association gets. They don’t care if you like it or not, they want to train you like an animal.
Maybe it’s subliminal messaging lol.
Yeah sorry not every aspect of my life needs to have advertisements trying to ram themselves down my throat.
Let me just enjoy something without interrupting me every 5-10 minutes.
Also idk about you but commercials on TV were just as infuriating to deal with
This post brought to you by Fishy Joe’s. Ride the walrus!
I understood that reference meme.
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Stay strong. I can’t stand the “annoy people into paying a subscription” trend.
I got annoyed enough that I got a Nebula subscription. I don’t think that helped Google.
All ⚠️ advertising ⚠️ is ⚠️ theft ⚠️ of ⚠️ time
that is a great marketing angle.
If companies want me to watch them while they pee they can fucking pay me for it.
one could argue that you are being paid in free content
The 90s ads gave me time to use the bathroom and get snacks in an era where shows could not be paused. I took advantage of that time.
Now it’s too short to do anything, or I need to press a button to end the commercial after 5 seconds, requiring my attention.
Not to mention that the 5 seconds countdown timer is bullshit. In actuality, the timer appears after about a second of playing through the ad, then locks at 5 seconds for about a second and a half, then slowly counts down to 1 where it locks for a second and a half again, and finally gives you the option to skip the ad. I’d wager it’s closer to 7 or 8 seconds per “5 second” ad.
There is a limited amount of tolerance for ads, and I had that all used up by the time I was 25. Now they can all go fuck themselves and I’ll read a book or build an end table before I watch another ad.
You need uBlock origin!
It’s hard to retain patience when literally everything everywhere all the time constantly tries to shovel ads down your throat
90’s me had a lot more free time, since he was a child being carried by my parents. So, my free time is waaaaay more valuable now.
It could be nostalgia, but I feel like commercials used to be a lot better. Well produced jingles, kinda funny characters, etc. In the 90’s, everything on MTV was designed to make you feel cool for watching it, even the commercials.
Now there are just too many ads for medications. Oh, and those ads that pretend to be the lowest quality twitch streams with no production at all.
There were two types of ads on TV. The expensive widely broadcasted ads from the big firms. These are likely the ones you remember.
Then there were the locally produced low budget ads. Like the car dealerships dressed in costumes shouting at the camera.
Those were fun too. Cal had a different animal in each ad!
Edit: also, Ernest!
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Ads are a way for corporations to steal your life from you, 2-3 minutes at a time.
Brave has a counter for how much time you’ve saved by blocking ads. I have many days of my life saved.
I’ve recently gotten hit by the 3-strike adblocker blocker. Had to download a Tampermonkey script to get around that shit.
YouTube makes enough money off selling my browsing history and stats, I don’t need to waste my time watching 3 unskippable ads.
I’ll admit it does feel like someone killed my dog when it’s the SAME ad over and over.
I feel less like we have lost patience so much as gained a respect for our own time and autonomy in being relegated to being nothing more than a product. At least that is what it is for me.
