I was watching tv tonite. Have you ever seen the commercial for Uncle Ben's rice? The one where the microwave beeps and the girl with the tights and bra comes running down the steps of her yuppy apartment and retrieves her 'meal in a bowl' for supper. Honestly, a bowl of rice is going to fill her up? Looking at her though, it may be all that she ever eats. There is no fat on that woman. However, that is not my point. The fact is that you get to see the microwave clock show 1:59 and then it rings. Later on they tell you that you can have this delicious, nutritious meal in 2 minutes in the microwave. I'm not sure about you, but my microwave winds down to 0 and then says END. I believe that is for the convenience of the consumer who does not therefore have to do calculations as to how much time is left. Example: I put the rice in for 2 minutes and it is showing 56 seconds so that is ahhhh... 60 seconds for the remaining minute and ahhhhh... 4 seconds left from the first minute so that means 64 seconds in total left! No, they do it so you know exactly how much time is left and then it rings with 0 left so that you know it is done!!! Isn't that false advertising or is it just massaging things to make it easier for the ad to give you the info that they want you to know. Maybe it is smart. I know it just caught my eye tonite. One of those illogical things that rub you the wrong way? Nothing too big, just annoying.
Have you noticed how many more commercials are on tv these days? Someone told me that for a 30 minute show in the 60's there was 5 minutes of commercials. Now we have 12 minutes of commercial. Some shows put them at the beginning and near the end and thus fewer during the show. Others (to me anyway) seem to stagger them every 7-8 minutes during the 30 minute show. It is annoying! Here's another thing I have noticed. It used to be that the show would come on at say, 7 pm. The name of the show came on, a key line and then off to a commercial. Now, the show comes on exactly at 7 pm and plays the intro full with a bit of the show and then goes to commercial. There's no running to the bathroom after the last show. You have to wait and get 'interested' in the next show before they give you the 'break' of a commercial. Life is challenging eh what?
Ok, sounds like I am complaining but not really. I am just observing these things. Just wondered if anyone else had noticed.
1 comment:
What I find annoying is that we seldom can successfully channel surf while we wait for our show to return since all of the commercials seem to be timed at the same time. Of course, I don't really like to channel surf since I am always afraid I am going to miss the first few minutes of my show. However, commercials really disrupt the flow of the show and they irritate me. I have overcome these problems by only watching television series on DVD. The shows are shorter, there are no interruptions and I get more involved in the story!
Post a Comment