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Nila Priyambodo
Editor in Chief
There are many people who are gullible and fall into the trap of commercials. They buy into whatever a company is advertising, whether it is true or false. These people eat up a product’s promises like candy.
Well in my younger years, I used to be one of these people. I was addicted to watching infomercials. The overacting black and white dramatizations, the catchy phrases, the over excited audience members and the one-of-a-kind bargains and easy payments sucked me in.
I even had a few favorites that I did not mind watching over and over again. One of them was a paint brush roller. However this was not a normal paint brush roller. This one had a hollow pipe as the handle. Whoever was painting would suck up the paint into the pipe and as the person is painting, he or she can slowly disperse the paint into the roller. Therefore the person would not have to continuously bend down to put paint on the roller. Another one that tops the list for me is the Gator Grip, a wrench-like tool that fits any size screw, nut or bolt. And then there is the hammer that not only dispenses the nail but hammers the nail into the wall without moving your wrist and hand.
Despite my love for these cheesy infomercials, there is a difference between voluntarily watching them and being bombarded by them. It seems like everywhere I go, commercials are everywhere. I understand that advertising is probably the only way for businesses to make money nowadays, but there should be a limit.
On my way to work in the morning, I often go to the gas station to fill up the tank. What do I see? A small television screen playing one commercial after the other. There were commercials for laundry detergent, commercials for foods and snacks and even commercials for toothpaste. I am already paying a ridiculous amount of money for gas, so I do not need another nuisance bothering me.
After work and school, I get a phone call from my mom or sister usually telling me to pick up a few things from the supermarket on the way home. And there it is. There is another small television screen at the checkout counter of the supermarket. By this time, I am too exhausted from a long day that I do not have the patience to listen to some “housewife” telling me how the “Mr. Clean Eraser” is a miracle worker on your walls, floors and tables.
When I get home, all I want to do is relax and watch my favorite television shows. OK, I know it is obvious that I would see commercials when I am watching TV. It is one place you cannot escape them. But do they have to air them right before some suspenseful cliffhanger moment, like before Ryan Seacrest announces who leaves this week on American Idol or before the bad guy spots Sydney trying to hack into their system on Alias?
Then when I walk into the theater, I am expecting to answer theatrical trivia questions, see the little popcorn and soda cartoons talk and dance telling us to silence our phones and see the previews for the movies coming out later in the season. I do not expect to watch the same commercials I see at home. I did not pay an overwhelming $10 per ticket to watch the same Ritz crackers commercial I have seen a million times.
I may have liked my share of infomercials back in the day, but this is different. It is not even half as entertaining, yet it is everywhere. At least with infomercials you have the option to watch it or ignore it. Do not try bombarding me with these commercials to buy your products. If I did not buy them then, I will not buy them now. I wish with these commercials we could just “set it and forget it.”
Nila Priyambodo, a senior journalism major, is editor in chief of the Campus Times. She can be reached by e-mail at npriyambodo@ulv.edu. |
