The UK government is banning daytime TV adverts for sugary foods like granola and muffins in its battle against child obesity, branding such popular items as junk food.
I got my parents set-top boxes with Netflix and cancelled their cable and they still mostly watch broadcast TV, with tons of ads. At this point, I dunno WTF is wrong with them – it’s as if they’re addicted to having the worst experience possible.
They just don’t want to choose. They want the TV on to fill the silence, not to watch a show. Maybe to watch the “news”.
Sometimes I miss the days of flow TV, you just turn it on and that’s it. No browsing the catalogue you just get whatever is on.
You know the Dead Internet theory? Where like 80% of the internet is just bots talking to each other and there are no humans involved?
American Cable TV has already reached the equivalent of that. It is a vehicle for advertisement. The whole industry is primarily propped up by advertisers in order to have a platform for their advertisements. Hardly any human eyes are on them anymore, because anyone out there who is still watching TV shows is overwhelmingly likely to be watching those shows on Netflix or Hulu. But the ads must flow.
Mostly the only people who are still seeing these are older folks, who are one of the easiest markets to market to. So there is still, arguably, some value in this. But realistically speaking if you’re advertising on cable TV and your target market is anything other than folks 70+ years old, you’re wasting your time. The whole thing is one big advertiser circlejerk. I believe this is why we now get less than 20 minutes of actual content during a 30-minute programming block. Air time has been shrinking to make room for more ads for a couple decades at least.
I left live-TV behind years ago. I only consider and watch streaming services that offer an ad-free option. Also don’t want my kids to watch all those ads. If we teach the next generation to despise ads, maybe we can change things.
It’s always so weird because it’s not like you can go to your primary doctor and say “I want X drug” right? Like, if there was a reason to give you a drug for something the doctor would have prescribed it. Also not ask you how you felt about them, just that here is X drug for your Y problem. If that doesn’t work we try Z.
Or do people actually swap doctors over and over for months until they get one who says “ok dude”?
You absolutely can, unless it’s Adderall. For some fucking reason you tell a doctor that you’ve been on Adderall for years and it works better for you than the alternatives you’ve been prescribed in the past and they treat you like a drug seeker instead of someone who’s been treating her adhd for over two decades
The latter is called “doctor shopping” and it absolutely happens.
The goal of the advertisement is to have the patient be interested, not the doctor. Admittedly some doctors are not up to date on the latest obscure cutting edge treatments, so there is some possible benefit. However, most doctors are capable of performing cost benefit analyses and understanding side effects, but when a patient comes in asking for a medication, it definitely tips the scales towards the medication.
Well, also there are medical sales people / pharma sales reps, usually attractive women, that go to doctors offices, take them out to lunch, and give them a ton of shit like free samples and golf clubs and whatnot. Have the product name recognition out there from the commercial helps with all this.
I rejected my medical care provider’s (I think it was a nurse practitioner) advice because of what I saw in an ad, and it did not go well. They were incredibly offended that I had an opinion and dismissive of the idea that IUDs could lead to scarring, which I got from the ad itself. I didn’t end up with any birth control that day, but the next month, planned parenthood gave me the ring instead of a first generation copper IUD.
I would have definitely gotten a second opinion via some internet searching on anything I saw in a commercial long before I talked to a doctor about it.
Oh, I did do that. I just wouldn’t have looked into it if it weren’t for the advertisement warning.
I think birth control is in a weird category here though, because it’s (generally) totally elective and there’s a bunch of different kinds that work differently for different people, so it’s probably pretty standard for people to have preferences about it in a way that they probably don’t for various types of, say, cholesterol medication.
All I see on what my wife watches is gambling and medication commercials that say nothing about what the medication does but that I should ask my doctor if I need it.
Finally. I was super annoyed every time I had to go to gamblingsite.net just to get me addicted to gambling with free money, just to trick me to going to gamblingsite.com where I had to spend real money.
In the US we have legalized gambling commercials now
That’s nothing compared to the pharmaceuticals being pushed constantly in ads.
I don’t know how anyone watches live news with all the drug ads
Old people. Hence all the drug ads.
I got my parents set-top boxes with Netflix and cancelled their cable and they still mostly watch broadcast TV, with tons of ads. At this point, I dunno WTF is wrong with them – it’s as if they’re addicted to having the worst experience possible.
They just don’t want to choose. They want the TV on to fill the silence, not to watch a show. Maybe to watch the “news”.
Sometimes I miss the days of flow TV, you just turn it on and that’s it. No browsing the catalogue you just get whatever is on.
I don’t know how anyone watches anything with ads
There’s nothing quite like the experience of watching US tv for the first (and most likely last) time.
That your broadcast system is still up is a mystery to the rest of us.
You know the Dead Internet theory? Where like 80% of the internet is just bots talking to each other and there are no humans involved?
American Cable TV has already reached the equivalent of that. It is a vehicle for advertisement. The whole industry is primarily propped up by advertisers in order to have a platform for their advertisements. Hardly any human eyes are on them anymore, because anyone out there who is still watching TV shows is overwhelmingly likely to be watching those shows on Netflix or Hulu. But the ads must flow.
Mostly the only people who are still seeing these are older folks, who are one of the easiest markets to market to. So there is still, arguably, some value in this. But realistically speaking if you’re advertising on cable TV and your target market is anything other than folks 70+ years old, you’re wasting your time. The whole thing is one big advertiser circlejerk. I believe this is why we now get less than 20 minutes of actual content during a 30-minute programming block. Air time has been shrinking to make room for more ads for a couple decades at least.
I left live-TV behind years ago. I only consider and watch streaming services that offer an ad-free option. Also don’t want my kids to watch all those ads. If we teach the next generation to despise ads, maybe we can change things.
It’s always so weird because it’s not like you can go to your primary doctor and say “I want X drug” right? Like, if there was a reason to give you a drug for something the doctor would have prescribed it. Also not ask you how you felt about them, just that here is X drug for your Y problem. If that doesn’t work we try Z.
Or do people actually swap doctors over and over for months until they get one who says “ok dude”?
You absolutely can, unless it’s Adderall. For some fucking reason you tell a doctor that you’ve been on Adderall for years and it works better for you than the alternatives you’ve been prescribed in the past and they treat you like a drug seeker instead of someone who’s been treating her adhd for over two decades
The latter is called “doctor shopping” and it absolutely happens.
The goal of the advertisement is to have the patient be interested, not the doctor. Admittedly some doctors are not up to date on the latest obscure cutting edge treatments, so there is some possible benefit. However, most doctors are capable of performing cost benefit analyses and understanding side effects, but when a patient comes in asking for a medication, it definitely tips the scales towards the medication.
Well, also there are medical sales people / pharma sales reps, usually attractive women, that go to doctors offices, take them out to lunch, and give them a ton of shit like free samples and golf clubs and whatnot. Have the product name recognition out there from the commercial helps with all this.
I don’t think I’ve ever “asked my doctor about ___” because of something I saw in a commercial.
I rejected my medical care provider’s (I think it was a nurse practitioner) advice because of what I saw in an ad, and it did not go well. They were incredibly offended that I had an opinion and dismissive of the idea that IUDs could lead to scarring, which I got from the ad itself. I didn’t end up with any birth control that day, but the next month, planned parenthood gave me the ring instead of a first generation copper IUD.
I would have definitely gotten a second opinion via some internet searching on anything I saw in a commercial long before I talked to a doctor about it.
Oh, I did do that. I just wouldn’t have looked into it if it weren’t for the advertisement warning.
I think birth control is in a weird category here though, because it’s (generally) totally elective and there’s a bunch of different kinds that work differently for different people, so it’s probably pretty standard for people to have preferences about it in a way that they probably don’t for various types of, say, cholesterol medication.
Hell, some have their own jingles
Oh Oh Ohhhhh Ozempic you know… 🤮
Hey, I would want to know if a pill is gonna make my taint tear.
It’aint.
All I see on what my wife watches is gambling and medication commercials that say nothing about what the medication does but that I should ask my doctor if I need it.
Must be Canada. They’re sort of threading the legal loopholes for drug advertising
They do the same in the US. Some of these commercials are super vague.
Finally. I was super annoyed every time I had to go to gamblingsite.net just to get me addicted to gambling with free money, just to trick me to going to gamblingsite.com where I had to spend real money.
Same in UK / Australia it seems.
We have an expat TV streaming option at home for the wife and holy fuck bingo ads galore on those channels.
Also, add for insurance for funeral costs? Wtf?
What country for the bingo ads?
Not sure. Didn’t pay attention which station it was.
And still have prescription drug commercials.
Now? I saw ads for the local races and slots place when I was a kid.
Ireland too :(