Disgusting TV commercials

[electra225]

Good grief! Is nothing sacred or private anymore? Eye bulging, teenage menstrual panties, Pyrogies' Disease, "down there" care. They took off beer commercials and cigarette commercials then left us with medicine and accident lawyers. The medicine ads have ten seconds of benefits then two minutes of side effects. Some of that stuff designed to "cure" a relatively minor issue causes cancer and stroke. Who would take it when they know the side effects? Streaming is a pain sometimes, but there are no commercials. And with political ads polluting the dinner hour, streaming looks even better. Radio is not much better. Many the FM stations around here broadcast about 40 minutes of commercials an hour. AM is actually better in that regard. I reckon they have smaller audiences...

[19&41]

With the DVR service from my streaming provider, I blow through those commercials in a few seconds. I watched a program with them intact and had to turn it off after 30 minutes. I have Discovery plus and spent 2 extra bux to have it commercial free. The hour programs are 41 minutes long. The ones I really despise are the OTA providers who crush the closing credits to stuff in some more commercials.

[walyfd]

I'm old school. I watch antenna TV. I am BEYOND sick of: Lume deodorant (I swear if they smelled bad before, I don't want to know their secret formula for smelling good now), there's a horribly irritating Consumer Cellular commercial that if they paid ME to enroll, I wouldn't, we were BOMBARDED with some Medicare plan with JJ Walker last year. I was going to open a fund to pay his insurance and 1 cent over what he was being paid...

Mute is your friend... tv should have a spam filter like email...

And hold on because we have elections coming up.

[electra225]

When I was a kid, "adult videos" were considered as base and crude as humans got. Those videos now are tame compared to some of the commercials. We were scanning the "On Demand" shows/channels the other day and, quite frankly, it's shocking to see what you can watch on TV nowadays. I guess I live a sheltered life.

[TC Chris]

I don't have a TV and don't listen to commercial radio stations (OK, I'll turn on the late-night AM talk program as I'm falling asleep, just for its entertainment value. The ZZZs start about 45 seconds after my head hits the pillow). When I am exposed to TV or commercial radio, it's dismaying. I am not a fool, thank you, and don't intend to be treated as one. I always remember the quote from Bill Moyers about local TV "news." He said, "It's a ten-minute crime report and 20 minutes of ads." Yup, crime and commercials. Not sure which is less interesting.

What has changed is regulation. The broadcasting spectrum is limited, and it's really a public resource,so in the early days of radio it was licensed. First they worried about mere technical competence--assigning frequencies and requiring limitations on bandwidth and power so as to limit interference. But then they also limited what you put out--language and content like politics. We old folks remember the "fairness doctrine" that limited what kinds of political bias the broadcasters could maintain, and also the rules that limited the bad words. OK, I've heard all the bad words in real life, but I can live quite well without hearing them on the radio. And the networks didn't put Leonard Bernstein or Omnibus on TV just out of the goodness of their hearts, but also because it was a nod to their public-service obligation.

The movies had a self-imposed censorship code adopted to avoid a governmental code. They were still able to make some memorable films. I will say that the relaxation of those codes does not bother me. A bit of frontal nudity or the occasional F-word has not shaken my moral fiber. But if your only form of emphasis is the F-word, things become boring in a hurry.

Ask your doctor how much he or she likes having patients ask about the latest miracle cure medication.

Chris Campbell

[William]

Most commercials are borderline porn, and the language is horrible. I do not find it acceptable to use foul language on TV where anyone including kids can hear it. Come on, what happened to morals. And yes, Walter, the "LUME" commercial is sickening. Open enrolment commercials are just starting up, so we will have almost two months of them. I do not have a DVR device, but like Walter, mute is my friend and sometimes no TV is even better.

Bill

[electra225]

We have been watching Perry Mason on "Freevee" and Blue Bloods from the beginning of the series on UPTV. No commercials at all on Freevee and UPTV is a semi-Christian network that even bleeps Danny on Blue Bloods. When you bleep language on Blue Bloods, you are a pretty straight-laced network. The dinner hour is the worst for commercials and political ads. We watch MASH and Andy Griffith as well. It's nice to see uplifting, entertaining programming, even if it is over 60 years old.....

The way people talk on TV, particularly women, is shocking. If my mom had talked like that in front of her father, she would have been "gummin' her vittles" for some time. If I'd talked like that, I'd have been eating Lifebuoy soap until I was 50.....

[TC Chris]

There was an article the other day (NYT??) on how widespread porn exposure is among children. It's harder to keep that stuff secret now. And maybe it's a good thing, if parents get over the embarrassment and talk to kids about sexual behavior in age-appropriate ways. People my age tended to get information about that from other kids (who often had it wrong themselves) or "dirty books" that were sensational and unrealistic. The cat is out of the bag when it comes to shielding children. Their moral stature will be affected more by how they see the adults in their life behaving than by hearing a naughty word or seeing an exposed boob.

But I do object to using dirty words as a substitute for humor. Once on vacation my siblings rented a movie called "Bridesmaids. " It was awful and after about half an hour I decided to take a shower instead of watching a very un-funny film. There was a heavyset actress who was semi-famous whose main form of humor was saying things like "penis." Sorry, that may pass for humor in 3rd grade, but not among adults. And maybe if we worried less about kids knowing something about sex, then the 3rd graders would not find "bad words" funny, either.

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

I was fortunate to have been raised by my grandparents. Although I was a "square" kid, the last one to have a date, I drove a Buick and was generally a "Yuk" when it came to the women. But, I had lots of adult supervision and, in fact, most of my interaction was with grandpa's friends and brothers. Quite frankly, I probably learned things I would have done well without knowing. Like how to strike a match between my fingers, rolling my own cigarettes, how to cuss so as not to sound "like a girl". And some other colloquial phrases we won't get into here. But, I was taught not to cuss in front of grandma or my mom, to sit up straight at the table, to wash behind my ears before I came to the table, and to always tell the truth. I was never in trouble. I 'fessed up when I did wrong, fell on my sword. I never got a lickin' even though I certainly earned one. I was never punished with work, which is probably why I still enjoy working. There were certain things that were not discussed "in polite company". Pregnant women stayed home after they "started showing". Myrtle, the midwife, neighborhood witch and all-around handy person to have around, delivered babies and provided pre-natal care. The older women did a lot of whispering when men or kids were around. Gossiping, I suppose, but certainly talking about things kids shouldn't hear. People give their integrity away. No amount of money can buy it back.

[19&41]

I watch On Patrol Live each weekend. They don't filter the speech so well sometimes, other times the bleeper is used so much it sounds like a drunken telegraph operator. That is how it is though.