are adverts the work of satan?

[petrefax]

just been reading this thread here

and in particular, saracen's mention of TV adverts

Originally posted by Saracen
As for me, I won't even watch live programs on commercial TV channels because of the interfering adverts. I'll tape the program and skip the ads. The advertisers have, in my view, got greedy over the last few years. The ad breaks are now more frequent, often longer, and the games they play with the volume every time the ads come on has me diving for the remote to mute the assault on my ears.

this struck a bit of a chord with me, but not wishing to hijack the thread, i thought i'd post here.

imho, adverts as they appear at present are the work of satan, since they are insidious. they are specifically designed to convince you that your life is incomplete & you are a loser unless you rush out & buy specific products, services that you previously didn't know (or care) existed.

i'm aware that the vast majority of UK TV channels are commercial, and as such their main source of revenue (and therefore money to spend on programmes) comes from advertising, so adverts are here to stay for the forseeable future. its not the fact that they exist that bothers me, but the fact that they seem to be constantly pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable practice in the name of parting joe public from his hard-earned

i'm not a social scientist myself, although my mum has lectured in sociologiy / psychology for as long as i can remember, so i have an awareness of such areas from her influence.

i was off work ill today so (obviously) sat in front of daytime TV feeling sorry for myself, and watching the alternating adverts for expensive consumer products / debt recovery solutions its quite scary to observe specific psychological "buttons" being pushed by the suggestions within adverts & the way certain adverts always follow certain shows etc

anyone else have any particular opinions on adverts, or have i just spent too long sat in the house on my own today??

[Nemeliza]

I hate alot of adverts but i must admit there are a few that amuse me out there aswell as some that can wow me.
Insurance/Legal aid - have the worst commercials!

[Dr. X]

I dunno if adverts can be generalised as evil, but companies telling you to go and get a loan to sort out your existing debts really shouldn't be allowed to send out those misguiding and exploitative messages.

[Jiff Lemon]

I despise advertising.

I wouldn't quite class it as the work of satan, but not far from it.
Sky is guarenteed to get my blood boiling. You pay a minimum of £30 a month (not forgetting you've already paid £110 for your TV licence) and your force fed 5 minutes of adverts every 15 minutes. It wouldn't be half as bad if the adverts weren't the same flipping ones each time!
I looked at getting sky plus - reasoning the extra cost would be justifiable becuase with the fab technology we have, it'll know when the adverts are and know when to stop and restart the recordings. Nope, no so luck, it records the bloomin adverts too!

[DaBeeeenster]

Originally posted by Jiff Lemon
I despise advertising.

I wouldn't quite class it as the work of satan, but not far from it.
Sky is guarenteed to get my blood boiling. You pay a minimum of £30 a month (not forgetting you've already paid £110 for your TV licence) and your force fed 5 minutes of adverts every 15 minutes. It wouldn't be half as bad if the adverts weren't the same flipping ones each time!
I looked at getting sky plus - reasoning the extra cost would be justifiable becuase with the fab technology we have, it'll know when the adverts are and know when to stop and restart the recordings. Nope, no so luck, it records the bloomin adverts too!

That's just Murdoch. I HATE Murdoch. I mean, REALLY hate him. I had a letter published in the Guardian about Murdoch! I refuse to pay for any goods or services connected with him.

If you pay for Sky, AND you hate the adverts, you only have yourself to blame. He will be laughing all the way to the bank.

It's funny. 4 days after I become a mod on the QT forum a thread is posted like this; my girlfriend has worked in advertising for the last 5 years and really loves it. I have a bad conflict of interest

One thing I can agree on though. The way they make the adverts louder than the normal TV REALLY drives me (and Tanya) insane. I cant stand it.

[Skii]

I wouldn't have Sky TV even if I was payed to own it.
Total Trash TV, endless repeats and the same adverts over and over and over again every 10 minutes.

Sky TV really does make you appreciate terrestrial TV on a level you never thought you would.

[Enverex]

Sky seems to be getting even worse, roughly a 6 min break every 10 minutes, it's starting to take the piss.

Internet advertising is even worse, just look at Spyware, pop-ups, etc.

Though one type of advert that is really starting to annoy me are Shockwave Flash adverts, as lots of them now have sound, I mean ffs, SHUT UP. If I hear at least 5 more then I am uninstalling Flash entirely.

[Ravens Nest]

They are definetly getting worse, when's the last time you saw a great new programme on sky lately, they all seem to be going for the reality t.v. format (Boring!) or repeating old stuff over and over and over again.

I miss the time when Sky one had great new us comedys and dramas i.e. The simpsons, King of the hill, x-files e.t.c.
Sky movies had at least 30 good premiere's a month and Sky sports was one channel..

I almost feel that Sky+ is a way for you to separate the wheat from the chaff, and sky and other broadcasters dont have to buy so many new programmes in.

And as someone has said already there were a lot less adverts.
Enough with all the adverts already, dont they realise that people completely ignore them now, whereas i used to watch them as i was waiting for the programme i was watching to continue but now i talk to my family while they are on, read or go to hexus to post

[DaBeeeenster]

Originally posted by Ravens Nest

And as someone has said already there were a lot less adverts.
Enough with all the adverts already, dont they realise that people completely ignore them now, whereas i used to watch them as i was waiting for the programme i was watching to continue but now i talk to my family while they are on, read or go to hexus to post

That's entirely the point though. They DO work. Companies spend 10's, sometimes 100's of millions of pounds in an advertising campaign, and they DO work.

Personally I try to ignore them as much as I can. Living with someone that works in the Industry I try and watch them on a "professional" level as I know what to look out for in terms of good creative work, execution etc, but generally I think they are rubbish. Obviously there are some good ones, the Stella and Guinness campaigns at the moment being two good examples.

Personally, the notion of paying for TV and then having someone advertise to me as well (like Sky), well, I simply wouldn't pay for it.

What REALLY annoys me is when I pay 8 quid to go to the cinema and then have to sit through adverts! It's like, HELLO, I JUST PAID 8 QUID HERE! Bah humbug.

Maybe we can start a boycott Sky campaign or something. I truly hate that man.

[Ravens Nest]

Well with the cinema i turn up 20 mins later than it says on the ticket, and just catch the end of the trailers
As you say DaBeeeenster you've paid for your ticket so why do you have to suffer adverts, it just seems to me they want more and more money any way they can and it does not matter what you think & how disgusted your are about it

Perhaps it's time like you say to vote with our feet or credit cards and dont go to the cinema anymore, get rid of sky and get a freeview box, but i know i cant do it i'll miss the movie channels even if they do repeat all the time.

But adverts as i've said before i do not watch them, cannot think of the last time i bought anything based on seeing a t.v. advert, but if it is subliminal then perhaps i have already

[DaBeeeenster]

It's not subliminal, it's more a fact of how you perceive the brand. So for example watching the Guinnesss surfing advert, you probably dont think "mmmm, I want a Guinness", but you will associate the brand with slick, modern cinematography. That WILL rub off on you a little bit. Then when you go for a pint and you think "mmm, what shall I drink" etc. etc. etc.

Advertising is not really about getting people to buy things directly, it's all about brand positioning. That's what Tanya my missus says anyway, and she earns more than me so I dont argue

[ACiD303]

I really do not mind advertising - if it was really evil, and subliminal (like those flash up ads for 1 frame that make you go for icecream during an ad) then yeah Id get into a ruckus about it. In some ways, they do prey on simpler minds to create a craving but I think alot of them just want to sway your already made-up mind that you're going to buy e.g. a car, and you see Citreon doing no VAT deals for a limited time and you go wow, great savings and go out buying with little research into other options. In a way, it can be informative and sometimes even interesting.

As dabeenster said, it's better to look for the creativity (or even entertainment behind it - admittedly, nowadays, most are utter bollocks. Taken the example of Guiness adverts, Ive always enjoyed watching them, or even seeing their ads in mags etc. The one with Leftfield's "Phat Planet" was a great ad (imo) just because there was some wow-factor behind it. They no doubt spend alot on advertising (even in HK ads, they employ local stars to do their advitising to make things "cool"). And I despisedrinking Guiness!

Similarly, the notion of "sex sells", there is nothing wrong with half naked gorgeous women walking about on your screen doing nothing else. Absolutely braindead - but it got your attention hey?

[Saracen]

Originally posted by DaBeeeenster
It's not subliminal, it's more a fact of how you perceive the brand. So for example watching the Guinnesss surfing advert, you probably dont think "mmmm, I want a Guinness", but you will associate the brand with slick, modern cinematography. That WILL rub off on you a little bit. Then when you go for a pint and you think "mmm, what shall I drink" etc. etc. etc.

Advertising is not really about getting people to buy things directly, it's all about brand positioning. That's what Tanya my missus says anyway, and she earns more than me so I dont argue

There's some truth in the brand awareness argument, but there's a dark side to that too.

I don't know if you've seen the nauseating Halifax adverts, or if they started since you left for down under, but they really make me want to puke. I had some investments with the Halifax and that series of ads made me investigate the market and discover that that I was better off elsewhere. When I asked to close the investment accounts, they asked why and I said it was because of those adverts. It was too!

I'm currently looking at mortgage alternatives as well

Commercial TV has to advertise to pay it's way, but they are killing the goose that lays the golden egg. I now either leave the room (kettle duty/pee break etc) whenever an ad comes on, or turn over, mute the sound, etc during adverts. It has got to the point with me where I make an issue of NOT watching them. It's my own personal little protest.

The overuse of advertising has, for me at least, had the effect of totally negating the benefit of ALL adverts, as I now refuse to watch ANY of the bloody things.

Oh, and I cancelled Sky years ago - the adverts was part of the reason, but not the main one. What caused that was when they introduced the new Pay as you go Movie channels. Up 'til then, Sky Movies and Premiere (or whatever they were called) sometimes had decent films on, at least a couple of times a moth. After the introduction of the new stuiff (Box Office is it called??), the content of the old Premium movie channels was simply dire. To hell with that. I told then to cancel the whole lot. They even offered to let me continue free for a month (in the hope I'd relent and keep it I guess) and I said no to that too. They seemed a bit surprised when I turned down a free month.

I now use the satellite dish for little more than Eurosport (free to air), and watch little other than SuperBike racing and MotoGP on satellite.

I even went so far as to buy a second video recorder, to be able to tape TWO commerical channels at the same time. There is rarely anything worth watching on TV, by my standards, these days, but you can bet your boots that if there is, it'll clash with the only other decent program on any given night, and if there's as much as three programs I'd like to see, it'll bloody well clash with both of them!

The same sort of rationale applies to junkmail. Anyone that includes a post-paid envelope in their junk gets their junk back, torn in half, (minus any codes, addresses, reference numbers, etc) in their own post-paid envelope. If I can't stop the bastards sending it, I can at least make it cost them more

My house is now formally and officially an advertising-free zone

Like I said, they've killed the golden goose, in so far as I'm concerned. Permanently. And judging by the bulk of the opinions I've seen in threads like this here and elsewhere, I have to wonder if others aren't increasingly doing the same, and more people aren't being driven to it.

[DaBeeeenster]

Hmmm. I'm tempted to buy a TIVO when I get back to Blighty.

You do have to remember that advertising is not just about the TV. Print adverts, billboard posters and "below the line" advertising (lingo for non-TV, Radio or Print like event sponsorship, direct mail etc) will rub off on us all a little. It's kind of impossible to shut yourself off from completely. Advertisers know this, and do exploit it.

You may have noticed an increase in "teaser" campaigns, where the actual product being sold is not even mentioned until well into the campaign. No prizes for guessing why that happens!

[floppybootstomp]

Advertising affects me, I'll admit that. 'Brand awareness' yes, that's about right, I'm aware of stuff now that I wouldn't know existed unless I'd seen it on a billboard or elsewhere.

Does it influence my purchases? I'd say no, but who knows eh, such is the power of advertising.

Generally, if I want or need something, I'll check out the options myself, then make a decision.

And is advertising the work of Satan?

Odd one that, as to believe this, to my mind, you have to believe in Satan.

But, if 'Satan' is being used here as a metaphor for evil, then my answer would be 'probably'.

I'd rather jump off a cliff than subscribe to Sky. And I haven't watched television for the past 4 years, and probably never will again, but who knows?

If I feel the need to chill by watching moving pictures, I'll watch a DVD. I don't have a TV Licence as I don't have a telly. The TV Licence people hassle me constantly, they don't believe me, despite showing no less than three of them round my home in the last year.

Hah.

[Nemeliza]

i find TV itself so repetitive these days its just the same old storyline with different actors. the same applies with alot of films with added explsions. i dont watch TV much (around 1hr a week) so the little TV i watch i neva see many adverts as i am constantly ponsing in and out of the living room as i please. I have a TV tuner on my PC which has not been installed scince my last format 7 months ago.. i dont believe i have a use for it.
Adverts like Nike for example i do like to watch i find them entertaining and inspiring. Companies like Nike rarely sell u a product directly they are just letting you know that they are still there(and if u wear their products u will be as good as the stars they pay $$$$$ to wear their products). Christmas = More adverts than TV can handle...which is why there is so many breaks during programmes. Even the BBC has joined Top of the Pops with Coca Cola...Funny wasnt they just saying they werent targeting their product at children.??
I dont watch TOTP but thats not the point. I can cope with radio ads as they dont last as long, doesnt mean they are good...just easier to deal with.
Actually there was a Natwest ad on the radio with some dude sating 'nooooo' 'nooooo' dont know what that accent was but i fell ova laffing.
SKY and Cable TV is just rammed full of adverts, funny thing is at about 3am if u watch summin on sky 1 theres only around ONE advert bet commercial break. During the day time now they get a 35minute programme and stratch it into an hour slot..they gotta fill it with something.