Quote:
Originally posted by mitch
. . . In America today there are advertisements EVERYWHERE. . . We have ads on busses, fronts/backs/inside cabs, and taco bell cups. I pay $7.50 to see a movie and get to see 15 minutes worth of ads before previews, not to mention the ads and "quiz games" (i.e. more ads) that cycle before they even roll the film.
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[RANT]Not to mention the "content" that we are trying to see while wading through all the obvious ads -- right from the start, television programming was understood by executive producers to be the stuff that keeps the viewers watching the ads. Now, more and more of the programs, movies, radio shows, etc. have so much advertising built into them, you may as well not make a distinction between the program and the ads.
In 1999-2000 I conducted a small study on the effect of consumer culture on school-age children. More than 40%* of the content of "programmed" materials seen by elementary-school age children (television, websites -- yes, even the 'educational' ones -- newspapers and other print media, and even textbooks) contain specific commercial messages. In addition, the more benign (non-product endorsing) content contains subtle consumer messages.
This is why I haven't had a TV for 11 years and listen primarily to public radio. I can't even tolerate the ads in the local paper anymore. Once you actively try to reduce your exposure to advertisement, you see that it really is EVERYWHERE. [/RANT]
*as a percentage of time viewed or column inches viewed