What are you trying to say??

8 May

So… I don’t have normal TV at home. I use Roku and watch Hulu Plus, Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc to keep up with my shows. This week I am home visiting my family. Which translates to, “I have CABLE” or “MUST WATCH ALL THE SHOWS”. And there’s this thing that happens on TV that doesn’t happen on my Roku (mostly). Commercials. And after a few days I have to ask- what the hell are they trying to sell me?

Alright, some commercials are clear- most car ads, for example. I say most because there are some things like the new Audi commercial with Zachary Quinto and Leonard Nimoy that don’t entirely make it clear. Alright, yeah, that one actually makes sense- I just wanted an excuse to link to it).

I guess the ones that really confuse me are the prescription medicine ads. And the strange perfume/jewelry ads. Like… there was a crazy ad with Julia Roberts. I get that it’s about doing your own thing and not being a sheep but… it’s a perfume ad. WTF?

And the Skittles ads. I won’t even link them. You’ve seen them, they don’t make sense.

I’m not sure what the point of these confusing ads is- they don’t inspire me to search out the products, buy them, or talk about them in a positive way. They inspire me to change the channel or question the sanity of the creators. Is that the point? I always thought the point of advertisements was to present a product and entice us to purchase them. To show us how the product will make our life better. You know what ad does that for me? This one (NSFW).

Also… let me just say something about film previews- why do they feel the need to show everything that happens in the film? I’ve avoided seeing previews for all of the summer blockbusters this year. Then I went to see Iron Man 3 (which I knew nothing about other than it was an Iron Man story) and feel like I’ve been spoiled for just about every major film coming out. I thought trailers were supposed to tease? I swear we had over 20 minutes of trailers. There were 5 films presented. So that’s 4 minutes apiece… which means that many of the key elements were presented. I’m sure there were some big twists left out, but honestly I feel like I don’t have to go out to the theater to see these films. That makes me sad. (I will probably still go out and see them… but it won’t be opening day, matinee kind of viewing.)

Sigh.