Offensive TV Commercials

I think the world can be divided into two parts- those who like TV and those who just bear it and find much of it offensive. I fall in the latter category, so I watch much less TV than most. But what I do watch sometimes offends or annoys me. From the silly plots of TV series to the talking air heads on news programs it makes me reach for the off button more often than not. Watching TV surely promotes reading skills. But what is most offensive are the TV commercials.

One dimension of TV advertising that offends are ads for products related to consumer problems which social norms dictate should not be discussed in public. Those Viagra commercials, for instance, are everywhere. they show nice looking middle aged men getting frisky after asking their equally sexually frustrated doctor for those magic penis pills. It's nice that Viagra pills exist for those who feel a need. But what about the other 95% of the audience that has no interest or need and doesn't want to be exposed to commercials that promise to make you horny and hard?

I also don't want to see ads showing hemorrhoid creams, female sanitary products.....including the douche, men fighting over beer while wearing only their underwear, testimonials about yogurt with probiotics that make you poo regularly, warnings about the prostate that show men lined up to pee at the most embarrassing of times, men and women barely dressed that are shown as sexual objects, and on and on.

Some products have such a targeted market I wonder why we all have to view their ads. Then there are the commercials that insult the intelligence (I hope so) of the viewer. Actors dressed as doctors who pontificate on a drug the advertiser is 'dealing' is one such example. Those drug commercial actually imply that patients should tell their doctors they need a medication because and actor or actress dressed in a lab coat told them to use it. They pretend that patients are better at making diagnosis's and treatments.

And what about those pizza commercials that spend most of the time trashing the competitions pizza, the ingredients used in them, or insinuating that Joe's pizza is actually not an Italian owned parlor so it must be awful. First Papa John Pizza said it had "Better ingredients, Better pizza". Then a rival, Dominoes Pizza said it had reformulated its pizza and 3 out of 4 people who compared' claimed Dominoes was best. The reality is that it mostly tastes like cardboard anyway.Then there are the TV commercials that lie. Any political advertisement is a good example of that. Some other products that use the lie often when advertising include: ads for petroleum products, car sale ads, real estate commercials, fast food claims, promotions for upcoming TV shows...ahhhhhhhhhh just about all of them lie.

But TV is the mediums for the masses and the the one that also most appeals to those with the lowest level of education. It's kind of like my rant here today, I guess.