@ ShadowDiver... they killed Eureka too?
what idiots...
@ marstone ... Yes, as the old saying goes... "Don't like the war? Turn it off." We didn't have a TV until I was 12. (And Gramps sent it to me from the Sears catalog cause he felt bad... I used it to watch David Suzuki back when he was good.)
I like my sci-fi and fantasy shows though. Commercials in online content aren't so bad, I'm pretty fast with the mute and alt-tab to go read a few gizmodo stories until the ads are over. But the old volume blast trick is worse than ever... very dangerous with headphones... actually considered writing to the Candaian Standards Association about that one... if they damage hearing with it they can no longer deny the tactic.
I have a standard demonstration... wait for an ad to come on... turn the sound down until you can just hear it clearly... then wait for the program to resume... complete silence until the next ad. I don't know how the industry can deny it with such boundless enthusiasm. It really does make them look bad.
The equivalent trend in online video snips is the appearance of very loud and annoying splashes on the beginning of every video.
The louder and more agressively you advertise yourself, the less likely I will buy your products...
I will NEVER buy any of the following due to their ads being so annoying and dangerously irresponsible towards hearing damage:
-Toyota (yaris series of ads)
-Sony (that effing helicopter...in the new camera commercial whoop, whoop, whoop... oh god my ears!)
...there are a bunch of examples like this.
-Smart Car.... (these guys are sadists... seriously, I can guarantee that Daimler blew speakers and eardrums around the world with that punch noise... oh yeah, real cute, blow my speakers and eardrums and then expect me to buy your crap car...) Are advertising execs really that stupid?
It has gottent to the point with me that most advertisements motivate me to NOT buy the product because the ads are so annoying and loud. Occassionally, an ad comes along that is not loud or annoying and simply describes the product... sometimes I buy those items even if I don;t need them, just to reward them for being nice and not trying to burst my eardrums as I watch stargate.
I have a certain advertising get rich quick scheme... needs significant initiaql investment, but the returns should be good. Buy lots of time on all the hot programs... get your sound guy to build the most annoying 30 second track possible, ringing phones, screaming women, crying babies, simulated orgasms, screeching tires, fingernails on blackboards... compress it all to the max, amp every frequency to just short of clipping.. heck - clip some of them... and then... for those who think they can escape with the mute button... make the video track a multicolor whole screen strobe - the kind that lights the whole room and prevents any concentrations whatsoever, the kind that makes walking difficult... - seizure inducing levels... - perfect... then at the end... put up the 1-800 number asking for $100. The customers get nothing... you stop running the ad on all their favorite shows when you reach your target revenue? $100M? That is what they will pay for, for you to stop annoying them.
Take TV hostage.
I bet it would work. It is current consumerism and advertising taken to it's logical (though really absurd) and inevitable conclusion on its current path.