Len posted:

As someone who works at a popcorn factory that is not going to get you what you want.

Cobweb Heart posted:

On that note, remember ~a couple days ago when that guy made a post about the dumb marketing he had to sit through, and then we had to read about a half page of retards ing and calling him a crazy sexless shut-in for being bothered by how hosed up it is instead of blithely ignoring it and pretending it's healthy and cool? It's actually way more bizarre to me that anyone (at least anyone who's not a young child) isn't disturbed and alienated by ads. It's incredibly surreal to see people do capitalism's dirty work in this very thread, like, "you put thought into the aggressively manipulative addiction tactics bombarding your brain -> you're a loving weirdo who cares too much -> definitely an unclean, lonely virgin with budding schizophrenia, must publicly distance self." How mentally crippled do you have to be to think like that? Actually that's facetious and unfair; I think I know what it might be: people who have to see ads on the hour, like because of work or kids, or who choose to because of their hobbies (moviegoers), are envious of anyone who doesn't have to experience it. People are scared and irritated by anyone who wants to talk about ads being really harmful, and pro-capitalist narratives in society encourage ignoring that and labeling them as anxious, paranoid misfits.

I think commercials are a really weird and scary thing - sometimes they genuinely upset me - and I wish society could somehow disallow everyone from being targeted and awkwardly mindfucked by rich people like that. That sentence alone is probably enough to get lots of people thinking "I didn't know a nerd could be this crazy AND this dumb".

Cobweb Heart posted:

On that note, remember ~a couple days ago when that guy made a post about the dumb marketing he had to sit through, and then we had to read about a half page of retards ing and calling him a crazy sexless shut-in for being bothered by how hosed up it is instead of blithely ignoring it and pretending it's healthy and cool? It's actually way more bizarre to me that anyone (at least anyone who's not a young child) isn't disturbed and alienated by ads. It's incredibly surreal to see people do capitalism's dirty work in this very thread, like, "you put thought into the aggressively manipulative addiction tactics bombarding your brain -> you're a loving weirdo who cares too much -> definitely an unclean, lonely virgin with budding schizophrenia, must publicly distance self." How mentally crippled do you have to be to think like that? Actually that's facetious and unfair; I think I know what it might be: people who have to see ads on the hour, like because of work or kids, or who choose to because of their hobbies (moviegoers), are envious of anyone who doesn't have to experience it. People are scared and irritated by anyone who wants to talk about ads being really harmful, and pro-capitalist narratives in society encourage ignoring that and labeling them as anxious, paranoid misfits.

I think commercials are a really weird and scary thing - sometimes they genuinely upset me - and I wish society could somehow disallow everyone from being targeted and awkwardly mindfucked by rich people like that. That sentence alone is probably enough to get lots of people thinking "I didn't know a nerd could be this crazy AND this dumb".

Cobweb Heart posted:

ToxicSlurpee posted:

Cobweb Heart posted:

On that note, remember ~a couple days ago when that guy made a post about the dumb marketing he had to sit through, and then we had to read about a half page of retards ing and calling him a crazy sexless shut-in for being bothered by how hosed up it is instead of blithely ignoring it and pretending it's healthy and cool? It's actually way more bizarre to me that anyone (at least anyone who's not a young child) isn't disturbed and alienated by ads. It's incredibly surreal to see people do capitalism's dirty work in this very thread, like, "you put thought into the aggressively manipulative addiction tactics bombarding your brain -> you're a loving weirdo who cares too much -> definitely an unclean, lonely virgin with budding schizophrenia, must publicly distance self." How mentally crippled do you have to be to think like that? Actually that's facetious and unfair; I think I know what it might be: people who have to see ads on the hour, like because of work or kids, or who choose to because of their hobbies (moviegoers), are envious of anyone who doesn't have to experience it. People are scared and irritated by anyone who wants to talk about ads being really harmful, and pro-capitalist narratives in society encourage ignoring that and labeling them as anxious, paranoid misfits.

I think commercials are a really weird and scary thing - sometimes they genuinely upset me - and I wish society could somehow disallow everyone from being targeted and awkwardly mindfucked by rich people like that. That sentence alone is probably enough to get lots of people thinking "I didn't know a nerd could be this crazy AND this dumb".

Cowslips Warren posted:

I wish it was illegale to have sirens and souds of car accidents in loving radio commercials.

Cobweb Heart posted:

On that note, remember ~a couple days ago when that guy made a post about the dumb marketing he had to sit through, and then we had to read about a half page of retards ing and calling him a crazy sexless shut-in for being bothered by how hosed up it is instead of blithely ignoring it and pretending it's healthy and cool? It's actually way more bizarre to me that anyone (at least anyone who's not a young child) isn't disturbed and alienated by ads. It's incredibly surreal to see people do capitalism's dirty work in this very thread, like, "you put thought into the aggressively manipulative addiction tactics bombarding your brain -> you're a loving weirdo who cares too much -> definitely an unclean, lonely virgin with budding schizophrenia, must publicly distance self." How mentally crippled do you have to be to think like that? Actually that's facetious and unfair; I think I know what it might be: people who have to see ads on the hour, like because of work or kids, or who choose to because of their hobbies (moviegoers), are envious of anyone who doesn't have to experience it. People are scared and irritated by anyone who wants to talk about ads being really harmful, and pro-capitalist narratives in society encourage ignoring that and labeling them as anxious, paranoid misfits.

I think commercials are a really weird and scary thing - sometimes they genuinely upset me - and I wish society could somehow disallow everyone from being targeted and awkwardly mindfucked by rich people like that. That sentence alone is probably enough to get lots of people thinking "I didn't know a nerd could be this crazy AND this dumb".

Alaois posted:

it wouldn't have been a problem if his actual descriptions and interpretations of the ads didn't come across as a guy scrawling them on his cell wall in his own poo poo

Tiggum posted:

I went to see Deadpool at the cinema recently (and it was pretty great, BTW), but it did remind me why I haven't been to the cinema in a long time before that. I got a good seat, but there were people paying $20 to sit way off to the side or practically right underneath the screen - the cinema I went to had assigned seating but the ticket price is the same regardless of which seat you get - or right next to some obnoxious stranger. And if you want an actually comfortable seat in a less crowded cinema where you can buy drinks then you pay double. For the price of seeing one movie in comfort I could get Netflix for four months. How is this still a viable business model?

RagnarokAngel posted:

Edit: Well I'll be less sardonic.

I guess the thing is less that he's a weird for not liking ads (who does? I'm not exactly begging for netflix to add them, and I use adblocker for a reason) it was the effort post of writing about every ad he saw rather than just moving on.

As for the manipulation piece...we are, in a very real sense, manipulated every day by everyone and everything in our environment, not just advertising. We're manipulated to goto work, do our jobs, find love, get married, have children. It's not always 5th Avenue advertising that does it and yet people wanna prove they're capable of breaking free of the shackles of consumerism by pointing out how ridiculous it is that we obey ads. Much like the argument about "is there really free will" it's just another way in which our brains are driven to do something and I just don't see how it's all that unique.

Also to be fair, he called himself the shut-in.

Lady Naga posted:

It was less about the elaborate deconstructions of the ads and more about how they were deconstructed, like calling PewDiePie the scourge of millenials or whatever.

Cowslips Warren posted:

I wish it was illegale to have sirens and souds of car accidents in loving radio commercials. Though my favorite has to be one very loud accident, brakes squealing and then a huge crash, with one guy exclaiming "Oh no, not again," in the most unsurprised voice possible. Dick, if a car accident has you thinking "meh, too bad" instead of slightly panicky from the adrenaline, you should not be driving.

Volume posted:

I loving hate those commercials. Driving in Central Florida you'll hear like 3 of those during each commercial break.

You hear a car crash, people screaming, a woman yelling out "my baby!" and you have to fight your instincts to hit the breaks and maybe swerve and cause an accident. Sometimes I think that's the whole plan, fly you into a panic so you crash and have to call.

RagnarokAngel posted:

Edit: Well I'll be less sardonic.

I guess the thing is less that he's a weird for not liking ads (who does? I'm not exactly begging for netflix to add them, and I use adblocker for a reason) it was the effort post of writing about every ad he saw rather than just moving on.

As for the manipulation piece...we are, in a very real sense, manipulated every day by everyone and everything in our environment, not just advertising. We're manipulated to goto work, do our jobs, find love, get married, have children. It's not always 5th Avenue advertising that does it and yet people wanna prove they're capable of breaking free of the shackles of consumerism by pointing out how ridiculous it is that we obey ads. Much like the argument about "is there really free will" it's just another way in which our brains are driven to do something and I just don't see how it's all that unique.

Also to be fair, he called himself the shut-in.

Filox posted:

"Manipulation" is not the same when discussing employment, love, marriage or children.

Employment is a good way to avoid starvation and homelessness. Love, marriage and children are inextricably linked to the instinct to perpetuate ones own DNA and preserve the species. The desire to preserve the self (by not starving) and preserve the species are natural instincts and serve a real purpose. We have a lot of societies in the world that have come down on the side of natural instincts and back them up by telling us to get off your rear end, feed yourself, when you fall in love [and you mostly likely will at some point in your life] try to turn it into a relationship because there are pretty good benefits of all kinds to having a partner, maybe have some kids and keep them alive until they're old enough to be independent. This is not a really bad thing unless you don't want those things for whatever personal reason (like you're lazy and hate people, or you don't want kids ever) and resent people who want to work, want to fall in love and want to maybe get married and have kids.

The desire to buy that new kind of Doritos and a new TV and a new console and a new car, hell TWO NEW CARS!!, these things are not necessary to existence. In this case you're being manipulated by advertising into doing things that are of little benefit to you or to your species. And it can get really loving annoying when the ads are trying to convince you all the time that you're a bad person because you're not buying their poo poo yet. And the point, which wandered off for a second, is that it is not necessary for the individual or the species to buy every piece of crap that's being touted on TV.

TL/DR: Living in a society that suspects that most people want to do things that come naturally to every animal on the planet is not the same as being subjected to commercial advertising all the time.

sweeperbravo posted:

I tend to watch shows where the target demographic is grandparents, so I'm used to the grim yet weirdly saccharine after-school-special acting of life insurance commercials, bad hip replacement lawyer ads, and George Foreman telling me to call his friends at Invent Help.

But nothing could have prepared me for this treasure, this absolute gem.


And here, have the black version as well, because this is a feat of voice acting mastery that can't be contained to just one race.

sweeperbravo posted:

I tend to watch shows where the target demographic is grandparents, so I'm used to the grim yet weirdly saccharine after-school-special acting of life insurance commercials, bad hip replacement lawyer ads, and George Foreman telling me to call his friends at Invent Help.

But nothing could have prepared me for this treasure, this absolute gem.

And here, have the black version as well, because this is a feat of voice acting mastery that can't be contained to just one race.

The part that really gets me is GRAMMA's creepy chuckle at the end. I think the voice actress was actually clearing her throat and they just said "What the hell, keep it."

Also, the "door opening" sound effect at the beginning of the commercial sounds more like Elly is going to start dropping some sick beats.

Kumaton posted:

Oh, God, I've seen this before and thought it was an extremely local commercial, but apparently it's a thing in other places. The clip art animation is just terribly amazing.
There's also Granny8, which apparently is local to my area, but has almost the same amount of effort as that Microsoft PowerPoint presentation that you shared.

Zamboni_Rodeo posted:

I give you General Auto Insurance, which I'm sure is every bit as scammy as the knee brace people:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOmquVNYF0Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSM9j81X0g4

Cobweb Heart posted:

On that note, remember ~a couple days ago when that guy made a post about the dumb marketing he had to sit through, and then we had to read about a half page of retards ing and calling him a crazy sexless shut-in for being bothered by how hosed up it is instead of blithely ignoring it and pretending it's healthy and cool? It's actually way more bizarre to me that anyone (at least anyone who's not a young child) isn't disturbed and alienated by ads. It's incredibly surreal to see people do capitalism's dirty work in this very thread, like, "you put thought into the aggressively manipulative addiction tactics bombarding your brain -> you're a loving weirdo who cares too much -> definitely an unclean, lonely virgin with budding schizophrenia, must publicly distance self." How mentally crippled do you have to be to think like that? Actually that's facetious and unfair; I think I know what it might be: people who have to see ads on the hour, like because of work or kids, or who choose to because of their hobbies (moviegoers), are envious of anyone who doesn't have to experience it. People are scared and irritated by anyone who wants to talk about ads being really harmful, and pro-capitalist narratives in society encourage ignoring that and labeling them as anxious, paranoid misfits.

I think commercials are a really weird and scary thing - sometimes they genuinely upset me - and I wish society could somehow disallow everyone from being targeted and awkwardly mindfucked by rich people like that. That sentence alone is probably enough to get lots of people thinking "I didn't know a nerd could be this crazy AND this dumb".

Choco1980 posted:

Some food for thought. My mom lives in the Kalamazoo area, and there's a whole mess of theaters in driving distance, but only two I like going to:

BioEnchanted posted:

When it comes to insurance adverts, Hastings has a fun phone number at least: 0800 00 1066 (Battle of Hastings)

Filox posted:

"Manipulation" is not the same when discussing employment, love, marriage or children.

Employment is a good way to avoid starvation and homelessness. Love, marriage and children are inextricably linked to the instinct to perpetuate ones own DNA and preserve the species. The desire to preserve the self (by not starving) and preserve the species are natural instincts and serve a real purpose. We have a lot of societies in the world that have come down on the side of natural instincts and back them up by telling us to get off your rear end, feed yourself, when you fall in love [and you mostly likely will at some point in your life] try to turn it into a relationship because there are pretty good benefits of all kinds to having a partner, maybe have some kids and keep them alive until they're old enough to be independent. This is not a really bad thing unless you don't want those things for whatever personal reason (like you're lazy and hate people, or you don't want kids ever) and resent people who want to work, want to fall in love and want to maybe get married and have kids.

The desire to buy that new kind of Doritos and a new TV and a new console and a new car, hell TWO NEW CARS!!, these things are not necessary to existence. In this case you're being manipulated by advertising into doing things that are of little benefit to you or to your species. And it can get really loving annoying when the ads are trying to convince you all the time that you're a bad person because you're not buying their poo poo yet. And the point, which wandered off for a second, is that it is not necessary for the individual or the species to buy every piece of crap that's being touted on TV.

TL/DR: Living in a society that suspects that most people want to do things that come naturally to every animal on the planet is not the same as being subjected to commercial advertising all the time.

Choco1980 posted:

It's NPR's spring pledge time, meaning every 10 to 15 minutes I get a guilt trip for gaving the gall to listen to a free radio station without paying for the privilege.

dirksteadfast posted:

LA has two main classic rock stations. I enjoy the newer upstart because they tend to have better programming and a more varied song selection. The only problem is, they insist on running self-congratulatory ads every hour praising how they have so many minutes less of commercials than the competition. Like, not just saying "Less commercials, more music", they specifically call out the other station and chastise them for having "140 more commercials per day" or something. Everyone I know who listens to the station agree it comes across as really desperate, and people have even written in to complain about it. You'd think they'd get the message, but nope, still doing it.

Phlegmish posted:

The desire to differentiate yourself by the products you consume, or choose not to consume, is a fundamental human social-psychological trait. It is as 'natural' as any of the other things you mention.

That doesn't mean there's nothing wrong with the way modern advertising works and the form it takes, but I disagree with the premise of that specific argument against it.

Iron Crowned posted:

I donate to NPR, so I just get annoyed that I hear the same special pledge drive episodes of things :negative

Uncle Enzo posted:

Is it? Like you said specifically "Products you consume", which is a very modern-industrial way of looking at it. Certainly people have always been like "oh I'm better than those poor people cause I buy my bread from the good bakery", but is that really the same thing as being bombarded by advertisements that imply differentiation where none exists? I don't think identifying as a mac/chevy fanboy is really the same as having only the good carpenters build your house.

Filox posted:

"Manipulation" is not the same when discussing employment, love, marriage or children.

Employment is a good way to avoid starvation and homelessness. Love, marriage and children are inextricably linked to the instinct to perpetuate ones own DNA and preserve the species. The desire to preserve the self (by not starving) and preserve the species are natural instincts and serve a real purpose. We have a lot of societies in the world that have come down on the side of natural instincts and back them up by telling us to get off your rear end, feed yourself, when you fall in love [and you mostly likely will at some point in your life] try to turn it into a relationship because there are pretty good benefits of all kinds to having a partner, maybe have some kids and keep them alive until they're old enough to be independent. This is not a really bad thing unless you don't want those things for whatever personal reason (like you're lazy and hate people, or you don't want kids ever) and resent people who want to work, want to fall in love and want to maybe get married and have kids.

The desire to buy that new kind of Doritos and a new TV and a new console and a new car, hell TWO NEW CARS!!, these things are not necessary to existence. In this case you're being manipulated by advertising into doing things that are of little benefit to you or to your species. And it can get really loving annoying when the ads are trying to convince you all the time that you're a bad person because you're not buying their poo poo yet. And the point, which wandered off for a second, is that it is not necessary for the individual or the species to buy every piece of crap that's being touted on TV.

TL/DR: Living in a society that suspects that most people want to do things that come naturally to every animal on the planet is not the same as being subjected to commercial advertising all the time.

GWBBQ posted:

If you reject advertising of consumer products that aren't necessary, you should also reject the norm of huge amounts of labor going into producing, transporting, and selling those things and the attitude that it's virtuous or worthwhile.