Commercials are Destroying Visual Media (Thank Heaven For Books!)

So, yeah. My rant blog title says it all. 

If someone asked me for a word that is the opposite of "entertainment," my answer would have to be "commercials."

There's nothing like watching a great show, and just when you get to the really tense, climatic, edge-of-your-seat moment...the TV cuts away to an ad for fried chicken, or a solution to remove ear wax, or one of those strange Consumer Cellular plugs. Mood destroyed. 

I wonder if the retailers realize just how angry they make the viewer. Like to the point of screaming, "I'm never buying your stupid product. Never! Never! Never! Do you hear me?" Or is that just me? Yeah, there's a reason HBO is my favorite channel. 

But it's not just television. Even videos at the online video sites whose-names-we-shall-not-speak have fallen into the commercialism sea of doom. You know how they operate. Like sticking ads right in the middle of the content you're trying to view. Or as an annoying prologue. You know what they tell us authors about writing annoying prologues? Don't do it! Well, I guess they didn't get that urgent memo. 

Even pay-to-view type channels--you know, the ones you pay good money to watch so you can avoid commercials--have commercials now. "But wait," they cry. "We only show a few!" Umm. I think they're missing the point. And when was the last time you paid 15 bucks and change to see a motion picture, and then had to sit through 30 minutes of Previews of Coming Attractions?

It's all an evil plot, I tell you. 

The surprising thing is that retailers actually believe consumers want to hear about their lovely products, rather than acknowledge that their outrageously expensive ads are nothing more than an excuse for viewers to take a bathroom break or pop some popcorn so we can return to the show we actually want to watch. Or, alternatively, we record the show so we can watch later and fast forward through the commercials. Although some of them have caught on to that tactic, and disabled the fast forward for some recordings, because they just know you never meant to skip through their wonderful ads. 

But yes, thank goodness we have BOOKS. Readers have the rare privilege of controlling their entertainment experience (for the most part -- real life will occasionally intrude, but that's still better than having to sit through a cartoon-mercial about a backed up gut or a new deodorant that works...well, everywhere!). Readers can decide where and when they want to pause the experience and where and when they want to pick up the story again, all without being lambasted with ads to buy whitening toothpaste or invisible hearing aids. (I honestly don't know if it happens with audiobooks because I don't read...er, listen to them. You tell me.)

You'd think books would be much more popular entertainment as commercialism attempts to usurp the lion's share of our viewing time in other media. But that doesn't seem to be happening. In fact, in a Test Prep Insight national survey conducted in January 2024, the results indicated that 48.5% of respondents said they hadn't read a book in over a year. (Horrors!)

Hmm. Maybe I should change my tagline from Escape to the Stars to Escape the Commercials! 

(Yes. I'm kidding.) 

 Note that this post contains no ads. <grin>