Commercials make us like TV more (2010)

https://hbr.org/2010/10/defend-your-research-commercials-make-us-like-tv-more

43 46 4 years ago

Lev1a• 4 years ago

Just because we end up enjoying something more when it has commercials doesn’t mean we expect to enjoy it more that way. DVRs appeal to us because prior to our viewing experience, we think we want no ads. It’s only after we have the experience that we realize it’s more enjoyable when it’s interrupted.

-----

Basically: "You think you don't like ads but we know you actually do like them deep-down."

Jail is incomprehensibly horrible the first day. Eventually, it’s less awful.
But if you let that prisoner out for a day…
That’d be practically cruel. You’d stop the adaptation and retrigger those initial feelings about jail when they had to go back.

Yikes! "Don't mind being in jail for long, you'll get used to it."

-----

To me the only good point of this article is the last question by the interviewer:

What are you doing next? Trying to prove we actually love the dentist?

-----

What was the meme'd phrase again from one of the press conferences years ago? Something like "you think you do but you don't"?

scrollaway• 4 years ago

I have met a lot of Ukrainian war refugees the past few months. What they all have in common is the adaptation to how bad things are in Ukraine, and when coming to safer countries, their mind readjusts and they realise what kind of fucked up shit they got used to and how unnatural it all was.

Things such as “Don’t mind the explosions, it’s not my city block”, etc.

icehawk• 4 years ago

What was the meme'd phrase again from one of the press conferences years ago? Something like "you think you do but you don't"?

Yeah it was a Q&A session and the topic of adding servers to play original World of Warcraft. The full thing was

"You don't want to do that. You think you do, but you don't."

To to tell you how correct they were about this, Blizzard later added "World of Warcraft: Classic", which was popular enough to add "Burning Crusade Classic" severs, and will be adding "Wrath of The Lich King Classic."

nullhack• 4 years ago

Can't wait for WoW Classic 2: ReClassed once WoW Classic gets old

Fnoord2• 4 years ago

> Just because we end up enjoying something more when it has commercials doesn’t mean we expect to enjoy it more that way. DVRs appeal to us because prior to our viewing experience, we think we want no ads. It’s only after we have the experience that we realize it’s more enjoyable when it’s interrupted.

To me, this appears to be rose tinted glasses. We can pause 'TV' now, and do stuff in between like dishes or toilet. But we don't have to. No more forced commercials. Both are features I enjoyed in past with this technology called VHS. One thing I miss is certain jokes at school/work based on TV commercials. But that too is likely those glasses being rose-tinted. Cause nowadays we got memes. Many memes, handle it.

I thoroughly enjoy the ability to have a video on my smartphone on the toilet, in bed or music or a podcast with my smartphone while doing chores/errands or either during commute. And the quality and availability and price of the streaming services is good enough right now (if it isn't I go back to piracy). Same with ebooks (though I use a Kobo; not Amazon).

WalterBright2• 4 years ago

One thing I miss is certain jokes at school/work based on TV commercials.

One commercial I remember was for shampoo for women. The girl who tries it gets a "hello Betty!" from the high school hunk, and she preens.

For a while every Betty in my high school got that treatment :-/

I suppose the commercial didn't actually work, because I have no recollection of what that shampoo was.

reaperducer• 4 years ago

we think we want no ads. It’s only after we have the experience that we realize it’s more enjoyable when it’s interrupted.

In the 90's, I had a Panasonic VCR that could detect superblack and use those markers to automatically skip commercials on playback.

After several months of using it, I found myself not understanding a lot of general cultural references that my coworkers would make around the office. It became increasingly hard to socialize with them between tasks because I was left out of a lot of what the rest of society knew about.

It's how I learned that commercials were a big part of our shared culture back then. i assume it's sort of like being the only kid in high school without Netflix today.

easrng• 4 years ago

*without Netflix or knowing how to pirate things

ARussell• 4 years ago

I refused to ever subscribe to cable television because of commercials, and I suspect I am not the only one. I never subscribed to Hulu, either, for the same reason (if they have an ad-free offering now, I've missed it because I stopped paying attention to them). I also will not use Netflix's ad-driven tier when it comes out.

undersuit• 4 years ago

I never paid for Hulu+ because the content I wanted had ads and the ads on Hulu are horrible. At least on broadcast and cable TV there's a mechanism to prevent the ads from getting stuck playing in a loop.

cshokie• 4 years ago

Hulu has an ad-free tier.

We had to move to it because our kids have not experienced commercials and would get upset every time some came on. They just didn’t understand interruptions to what they were watching.

jjulius2• 4 years ago

I should clarify that Hulu's "ad-free" tier isn't entirely ad-free. Certain programs may actually have an ad play before them, though usually I've only noticed this when, for example, Hulu has a deal with an existing channel to stream a show as soon as it airs on cable TV.

Annoys the hell out of me that they continue to call it "Hulu (No Ads)". It really shows the level of respect they have for their customers.

https://help.hulu.com/s/article/ads-no-commercials

bcrosby95• 4 years ago

At my mom's house I had fun trying to explain to my 4 year old that we couldn't pause the TV, and that even if we turned it off the show would keep going.

Rebelgecko• 4 years ago

Hulu has had an ad-free option for most of it's life, although I think for a handful of videos the rights situation still required them to still show at least one ad for a movie or episode of a show

winternett• 4 years ago

GOOD commercials help to make us not mind watching TV because they can potentially create mental breaks at times, or inform us about things we're interested in... Heck, even TikTok is one big scroller for commercials of some sort, they just let the ones that aren't selling products at all trend most.

In the 80s and 90s there were actually awards for creative and well composed commercials that were interesting to watch. Now we have commercials that stoke fears of chronic illness, overly-extended commercials, and nonsensical commercials that try to sell us too many things we don't want or need. Commercials are targeted at us in very creepy ways as well. Companies now are regularly ruining their credibility just to make one sale in commercials, and it's also not sustainable... Many companies run huge/expensive marketing campaigns and then quickly burn out after initial hype (For reference, look up "pink sauce" on TikTok).

A big part of the problem in cheap advertising is that when it is available everywhere, it becomes inauthentic, low effort, and over-saturated... And the products and services are weakened by more emphasis on marketing than on quality and reputation.

Commercials are killing everything now because they are all over the place. When we saw Blade Runner years ago, it was a dystopian ideal, but now companies would put big screens playing ads for lawyers, doctors, and even pharmaceuticals on ambulances if they could. It's spam. Ad spots are also even subtly being placed in content and shows on TV, it all has the psychological effect of alienation towards ads when it is overdone to where there will likely be a movement to reject technology and entertainment if the oversaturation continues.

Commercials now are also far too repetitive and there are too many with each break. Back in the 80s, I recall a long stretch of time where there were only 3 max per commercial break. The price of ad space was higher, and only major companies sponsored ads. The bar is so low now that scammers and even influencers can buy ad space, and it creates far too much overload.

Probably the worst part is that if you pay money for cable TV, you're also spending tons of time watching ads. It's like buying a device that 50% of the time does not do what you expected it to do, and that constantly tries to encourage you and manipulate you mentally to spend more money.

Because the cost of living is high now, people are beginning to reject ads and desire more calm. If TVs and the Internet become spam machines, people will simply stop buying them and turn them off because there is a limit to how many ads people can tolerate, and companies really aren't properly respecting that.

WalterBright2• 4 years ago

Ad spots are also even subtly being placed in content and shows on TV

This has been going on since TV started. Perry Mason's revolving assortment of cars were provided gratis by car companies. Bullitt's car chase was an ad for the Mustang and Charger (a very effective ad, I might add). 1950s shows were always "brought to you by..." and the show itself would pitch the soap or whatever.

Falkon13132• 4 years ago

The Flintstones was brought to you by Winston cigarettes, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bvt8skgm2l8, just in case you've ever wanted to see Fred and Barney discussing which cigarette filter works the best.

Spooky23• 4 years ago

I’m a child of the 80s and probably watched too much TV as a latchkey kid.

I don’t remember most of the TV shows on watches, but I remember many commercials. Some of them were really awesome.

Commercials now are lousier, but streaming commercials are worse for some reason. I don’t understand why MLB.tv commercials are awful, but if you watch the regional sports network they are better.

havblue• 4 years ago

Most shows were filmed specifically to benefit from commercials at the time. You wonder what's going to happen after each cliffhanger. That's part of the fun. So if it's a show that wasn't filmed with that intent, like when they edited and spliced sex and the city for tbs, I'd imagine that users weren't as engaged.

The title might as well be, "shows that are written specifically to have commercials are more entertaining when the commercials are kept in".

faeriechangling• 4 years ago

Not only were the interruptions inside the episode important, the interruptions BETWEEN episodes was important. When these series are rewatched in marathon format, they just seem to have tons of cheesy unsatisfying twists, because there isn't the suspense of having to wait to see what happens.

I agree that this observation doesn't nessecarily hold for modern media which was designed to be marathoned from the outset ad-free. Commercial Breaks now seem like much more of an afterthought instead of something actually woven into the scriptwriting, which only make commercials more offensive.

_aavaa_• 4 years ago

Can’t wait till we look back and see the same thing for current shows and movies and then being designed for memeing and sharing on social media.

Falkon13132• 4 years ago

I don't like marathoning shows even if they were designed for it. It's too easy to find a new show you like, watch the entire thing, and then just feel a sense of loss and forget about it. Especially with 'seasons' now being only 6-10 episodes instead of 22.

I'd much rather watch one episode per night (or week) and have something to look forward to and enjoy for awhile. Plus it's nice to have variety - an episode of this show, an episode of that one.

InCityDreams• 4 years ago

The title might as well be, "shows that are written specifically to have commercials are more entertaining when the commercials are kept in".

Yes, but... I enjoy certain youtube content, oftentimes it'll be ripped tv shows. Nothing more annoying (but thank you, rippers) than the cut adverts being so obviously cut, in that there's a 15min intro, a build up, and then a ridiculous summary of 'the predicament' (which would have been after the ads) and bujld up.

Did we really forget everything when adverts were shown?

US shows are worse, probably because they showe more adverts?

toast0• 4 years ago

Did we really forget everything when adverts were shown?
US shows are worse, probably because they showe more adverts?

When the adverts are shown, it's a good time to stop and consider if anything else is on and worth watching. You may stop on a different show and need to be brought up to speed, or have burned your short term memory with 50-150 channels of ads and garbage. I think the US has a bigger percent of tv viewers with a pay tv subscription with a ton of channels, but I could be way off?

Of course, some shows really don't have that much content, so they spend a lot of time rehashing what they already showed you.

And then you've got online tv with commercials where they insert them almost, but not quite at the intended insertion points. Ugh, that's terrible.

happyopossum• 4 years ago

US shows are worse, probably because they showe more adverts?

That’s not necessarily the case - I remember growing up in Canada and having an extra 60-90 seconds cut from some of my favorite US TV shows to make room for even more commercials. I knew this because we’d vacation across the border and I’d get to see the full length original shows.

stephen_cagle• 4 years ago

I think I remember reading that most tv was also accelerated like 1% or something so they could shove 1 more 15 second add in it. Also why the credits run by at 20x at the end of a film. :]

chmod775• 4 years ago

I have an extremely averse reaction when I feel like I'm being manipulated. There's not much I dislike more than that.

When twitch gets past my ad blocker, I reflexively close the tab. And those are only a few seconds. For the same reason I would be unable to watch a TV channel that has ads.

The article seems suspect to me. Possibly because I can't relate at all.

frankthedog• 4 years ago

Agreed. This doesn’t pass the sniff test. Millions of people pay money for an otherwise free YouTube in order to not see ads, myself included.

bestnameever• 4 years ago

In my experience, ads on youtube are very different than an ad break during a traditional broadcast television show.

eternityforest• 4 years ago

Millions of people pay for lots of stuff that they don't particularly enjoy all that much, just out of habit. And lots of people talk about how TV was better in the past.

beebeepka• 4 years ago

Clickbaity but it's not as thrashy as I expected. Yes, people do enjoy pauses for bodily functions and whatnot. Great science

amelius• 4 years ago

Great science

Yes, a better approach would be to give a panel of test-subjects the ability to skip commercials and see how often they would use this feature.

mac-chaffee• 4 years ago

I think this is the paper they're talking about: https://academic.oup.com/jcr/article/36/2/160/1942726

Interestingly, they did control for the effects of TV that was edited with commercials in mind (cliffhangers, etc.) in "Study 2", where participants watched a 4-minute animation with and without interruptions.

tryfinally• 4 years ago

On a similar note, I recall reading somewhere on the Unity blog that adding ads to a game supposedly boosts retention. I personally refuse to believe that the average mobile player's brain really is that rotten.

fumeux_fume• 4 years ago

Lol, nice try assholes. But in all honesty, if you're the kind person that yucks it up to Big Bang Theory, then I'm sure you're gonna love this new Aflac commercial.

bitwize• 4 years ago

Commercials don't make TV better. In the USA they're like death and taxes: something you may not like, but acknowledge and respect because it's inevitable (except for not watching TV at all). So in that light, one can enjoy the more entertaining commercials. Some companies, such as GEICO and formerly Bob's Discount Furniture (when the real Bob was still involved), make a point of making memorable commercials, but television would be better off without even these. The 80s and 90s also seemed to have many more fun and beautiful advertisements compared to today.

People from Western Europe (I know the UK and France, I'm not so sure about elsewhere) tend to remark on the pervasiveness and obnoxiousness of commercials on American private, ad-sponsored television. I wish we had had more government sponsorship and regulation of television here the way they did in the UK and France.

cafard• 4 years ago

I think that Marshall McLuhan said that the ads are always better. Of course that doesn't mean that we like them more.

bell-cot• 4 years ago

Statistically, their results might be correct. OTOH, potential TV viewers are not a homogeneous group, and the results might be quite different for various sub-groups. I'm generally turned off by TV, and try to avoid it. I have a few friends who live alone, and let the TV run all day, to make it feel as if they have other people around. (Maybe I should ask them whether they pay any attention to the programs and/or commercials...)

SturgeonsLaw• 4 years ago

Is adaptation a universal effect? Should our office meetings have “commercial interruptions”?

Meetings are the interruptions lol, they make me appreciate real work all the more

akrakesh• 4 years ago

Gist: The authors think, without interruptions, we get adapted to the pleasures of a show; it becomes less pleasurable as we get used to it. Interruptions re-trigger the initial enjoyment. So, commercials (interruptions) make us like TV more.

Thoughts: Clickbait title. A better title would be: 'Interruptions make us like a TV show more'.

Note: The authors are "working with a large TV network, which is replicating the study in its market research".

dredmorbius• 4 years ago

Research seems seriously sus.

I will go to extreme lengths to avoid commercials in any medium. They're a principle reason for my watching no television at all. Even sponsorship spots and various nags on noncommercial radio broadcasts will prompt me to change the station or put on a recording instead. I note that in listening to podcasts, I have an exceptionally strong preference for those without any advertising at all, with fixed pre- or post-roll spots (which I can skip automatically), or with specific timed slots with intro/outro audio cues (which I can skip manually). The worst are programmes where the ads appear frequently (several times per episode) and/or without notice. Ironically, it's several public-radio podcasts which seem to be among the worst offenders in this spot.

And on the Web I ad-block aggressively as well as remove distracting features from websites ranging from registration requests to interstitial recommendation to "link-litter" social icons.

I've a possible control experiment though for the suggestion that breaks or pauses might aid in enjoyment or appreciation of a piece.

I've listened to public broadcasting over several decades in multiple markets, some large/primary, some not. In primary markets, the various station breaks in programming tend to be filled with sponsorship slots, promos for other programming, and the like. In smaller markets ... not so much, and often interstitial music plays between segments (as part of the primary programme). I've noticed that where or when I'd had access to stations which did this, the news was less harrying to me, overall. Every ten minutes or so there'd be a small interlude, and I could reflect on what I'd just heard or attend to something else. Where programme follows spot follows programme, it's simply a constant sensory assault.

I do miss those breaks.

Commercials make us like TV more (2010)

Related Stories