Advertising Saturation
We are so overwhelmed by product placements & adverts in every conceivable form and on every conceivable device, that they meld into the background. I use the internet about 5-8 hours each day. I am always connected and always have my 3 different e-Mail accounts Mailboxes open. There are also adverts on every printed and web page. I'm not going to pay to stop them. I could use an applet I have to block them and just leave "Blocked Ad" and white space on the screen, but I can't be bothered. I don't even see them. I would suspect most of us don't. Now whether they are being processed subliminally is another matter. I like to think that I make an informed and concious choice about the products I purchase. Perhaps there existence is subliminally planted in my mind and I can then find out some factual information and make informed choices.
When I watch any TV; apart from the BBC channels which, thankfully, don't have any adverts: I always delay the start by an amount of time approximately equivalent to the amount of adverts I expect, I can then fast forward over them. before this technology, I would record a lot of things on tape and then DVD and watch them later, minus the adverts. If I want adverts I make a concious decision, subscribe and read about the products being advertised from other sources before making any decision to purchase.
I am aware that the fact that people can skip the actual advert breaks, mean that the advertisers have to find even mopre inventive ways to sell their products and in the programme means you cannot avoid it, but they are likely to fall prey to the same as I've described above - In the end we won't even see them and they will hardly register on our conciousness.
I definitely do not think we should be bombarded with product placements within a programme or film. To have someone working at their computer and the camera clearly showing the back on the open laptop with 'HP' or an apple on it, people quite clearly drinking a particular beer brand, etc, etc. The show makers should be content with being able to sell their products on the basis that the interested audiences will sit through streams of adverts in the break.
I say 'Keep the adverts out of the programmes and films completely'.
