One night after dinner, I was cocooned in my “Comfy Chair,” fully wrapped up like an Egyptian Mummy with a warm throw blanket. The “Carbo-Load” from dinner was kicking in, and I was waiting for sleep to envelope my body. The Big Screen was on, and it seemed that every time I was about to drift off to nap-land, a commercial would come on and irritate me enough to stop the “Sandman” from doing his job! The thought occurred to me that commercials have become irritating, annoying, and detrimental to my sleep pattern.
At first, I thought it was just the political commercials that irritated me. By the time millions of dollars are spent on negative ads, I’m not sure who to vote for. And this time of year, the Medicare ads are flying fast & furious. Do I really want to call an 800 number that will be answered by people who will make money if I take their advice and switch to one of the promoted programs? They craft their commercials to address people’s hesitancy to call them and make it seem like it makes sense to call them. It’s so convincing that one of my dogs brought my cell phone over to me and seemed to want me to call.
With generational marketing campaigns, some commercials targeting young people leave me wondering what product they sell. The commercials are loud and flashy, utilizing all kinds of computer-generated effects that they seem almost multi-dimensional. If the focus is on a particular product, I sometimes need help figuring out what product they are selling. It could be anything from a new fragrance, car, phone, or whatever. They sell the lifestyle more than the product that you need for the lifestyle you want. I’m sure young people get it, and they can have it for what some of those products cost!
I like to reflect on some of the commercials I grew up with. I guess they didn’t make much sense at times, either. Some kid would start singing that they wished they were a hot dog; who does that? How about a stuffed dog spelling out the name of a chocolate powder? The musical jingles still play in my mind once in a while. “Give Me a Break,” “Like a Good Neighbor,” “They’re Magically Delicious,” “Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz,” “Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun.” People would literally walk around singing or saying these catchy jingles.
I miss a time when the commercials on television were almost more entertaining than the shows we watched. That’s why they invented the mute button so that we don’t have to listen to commercials that irritate us, which are the majority of them today. Commercials ARRRG!
On the other hand, I do like to be notified by a commercial if there is a special sale or a new product as long as I can understand which product it is!
“Remember, every day is a gift! Some are just a little more fun to open than others. – © Joel M. Vernier 12/4/2022 Author of: “The Guinea Pig In The Freezer.” joelmvernier@aol.com
