On Thursday night I sat in front of my TV and turned on my Xbox to play NCAA Football 14. Within 8
minutes of turning it on I had already seen 5 advertisements. To me, putting these kinds of advertisements
in the games does make it more realistic, but the advertisements don’t actually
catch my eye. I found myself searching
for the advertisements when trying to come up with some type of stat. Finding this stat made me realize how
desensitized I am to advertisements.
Another stat I looked for was how many minutes of commercials I saw
during The Ultimate Fighter, which
turned out to be 17 minutes for a one hour show. If you asked me now to name the product for
one commercial, I couldn’t name any.
Commercials just go in one ear and out the other. This may have to do with the fact that the
advertising on my most viewed TV network, ESPN,
doesn’t relate to me. On ESPN, the commercials are for new
trucks, insurance, and beer. And since
none relate to me because I either don’t have the money or am not old enough I
zone out. So now with all advertisement
I seem to do the same. Which is why
finding the commercials in my video game was actually very difficult to
do. I am so desensitized that I couldn’t
find something right in front of me.
Advertising also does
not affect which product or company I end up buying from. In fact, advertising sometimes makes me not
want to buy their product. One example was
a summer jingle that Burger King
created about frozen ice cream. The
commercial annoyed me so much I had to mute the TV every time I saw it. The commercial also didn’t change that I go
to Burger King once or twice per year
and that I prefer Chipotle. Advertising simply doesn’t have a huge effect
on me.
Advertisement has become such a huge part of our daily
lives. But for some, advertising has
been blasted at them so much they become desensitized to it. I believe that most media outlets are still
more concerned with entertaining us. My
video game was very subtle with advertising and The Ultimate Fighter was below the national average for air time to
commercial ratio (1/3 of the time being commercials), according to waynesthisandthat.com. So, there is still hope that our world will
not be overrun by advertisements.
Eric, you make a point similar to the one that Shannon made. You write, "If you asked me now to name the product for one commercial, I couldn’t name any. Commercials just go in one ear and out the other." This is interesting, and like I wrote to Shannon, I am not sure how to respond to this fact. I personally agree. I either tune-out ads, fast-forward through them on DVR, or use them as opportunities to get work done. Regardless, I never watch commercials. I guess the only question I have for you and Shannon is whether or not we can use our response as representative of the population as a whole. And, even if we don't watch them, the ads might still be the dominant factors in our entertainment industry.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate that you offered some quantitative analysis to support your answer. The only real issue I have is that you have several technical lapses in this post. Let's look at one: "And since none relate to me because I either don’t have the money or am not old enough I zone out." This sentence has several issues. First, it is awkward to begin a sentence with "And since." Second, you really need some commas. Third, you need to be explicit about what you don't have the money or are not old enough to do. I can infer what you mean, but you should not rely on your reader to infer. Also, without this information, the sentence is grammatically incorrect.