An Advertisement Overdose
By Bethania Ahadu
There you are, in your humble abode, watching TV. You can’t wait for the movie you’ve been waiting ages for to come out in only a few months. As you’re watching television, you spot an ad for the movie you’re hoping to see. It’s no problem, there are commercials here and there—but soon they’re practically everywhere! Car commercials! Fast food toys and more! Next thing you know, you don’t want to see it anymore; the growing admiration for your movie is gone.
There are just too many advertisements for one movie. When movies or shows are sponsored in this way, they become excruciatingly annoying.
Money is the main reason of this “provoking problem”, which of course I understand. The problem is what the advertisers are willing to do to get it. As a person who despises the commercial break for it being flat-out boring, I have another reason to hate-the-break. “The number of commercials in the typical hour of television has grown steadily during the last five years. . In 2009, the broadcast networks averaged 13 minutes and 25 seconds of commercial time per hour. In 2013, that figure grew to 14 minutes and 15 seconds. The growth has been even more significant on cable television. In 2009, cable networks averaged 14 minutes and 27 seconds per hour. Last year, the average was 15 minutes and 38 seconds.” (Flint) I can’t seem to escape it even when I’m jamming out the radio. “The most common mistake is allowing the ad budget to dictate the length of your ad.” (Williams) Every time the break comes in that same commercial shoves its way through—yet this time, it’s only audio. Luckily, I have found a solution to this massacre.
There are two ways to solve this problem; one way is to watch less TV. It’s where the most overused commercials are located and that’ll minimize the amount of annoying ads by half. I guess it would take a large amount away if I just took a long break from the media all together? That could never happen though, not in this century. Another possible way—but I doubt this’ll happen anytime soon—is for the advertisement companies to be a little more creative and not sponsor the same movie or show. A great point by Roy H. Williams is that “you're in a business category in which no one advertises but you. When path dominance has been acquiesced to you by your competitors and simple name recognition will likely be enough to make customers think of your name when they need what you sell.” I don’t care if they sponsor a movie or show just not the one that every other ad is also using. If any corporation would heath my words that would be doing me a huge favor.
In conclusion, with the statistics, ads and commercials that constantly play with the same sponsors are seriously annoying. Honestly, I’d thought that they’d know that bombarding people with products will give a negative effect on their business. Looks like I was wrong about that, how ironic.
Works Cited
Flint, Joe. "TV Networks Load up on Commercials." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 12 May 2013. Web. 17 Dec. 2015.
Williams, Roy H. "Radio Ads: How Long Should They Be?" Entrepreneur. Entrepreneur, 12 Sept. 2004. Web. 17 Dec. 2015.