Follow me on Twitter Okay, I’ll confess…I don’t usually watch a lot of TV. Broadcast TV, that is; I’m certainly a TV on DVD junkie. I’ve been this way for some time, mostly because I’m a cheap bastard and I don’t want to pay for cable. Partly, though, I’ve found myself becoming more and more averse to the broadcast and cable television format. You know: the shallow programming, the veneer of caring for the customer, the shameless self-promotion. And let’s not forget the condescending and manipulative advertising! Suffice it to say, I’ve been content to avoid TV for some time. Well, sure enough, separation breeds detachment, and visiting TV periodically found me more and more amazed by what I saw.
Recently I’ve been finding some fairly fun (read “free”) content on Hulu, and as a result have found myself subject to the whims of advertisers once more. It’s not so terribly bad, I mean, the commercials aren’t as frequent as on regular TV. They show about four 30 second commercials per show, spaced at normal intervals…and it’s often the same ad over and over. So that’s fine, but I’m finding myself studying the weird world of Madison Avenue once again. What are they saying about their viewers? Is it a reflection of societies views about itself? Are we as ugly as we portray ourselves? Or are we being manipulated?
