Saturday, December 7, 2013

Movie Trailers ARE Advertisements

So I hear about a movie that I like, and I want to see the trailer.  Well, I know I can go to imdb.com and likely look it up, all well and good.  (And, for the record, let me state this - yes, I know imdb.com is a free website to me and provides a fine service.  But.  Still.)  But then, before I see my trailer, they show me an advertisement.  But movie trailers are advertisements.  The movie is obviously a product, a product they want me to purchase, and the point of the trailer is to make me want to purchase the product.  Again, fine and dandy.  But if I'm going to watch the advertisement for a product, why should I have to watch the advertisement for another unrelated product first? As though an advertisement is the normal price I should have to pay to watch another advertisement.

Right, I know - because capitalism.  Still sounds like bullshit to me (as, in truth, much of capitalism does)...

IBL:mm

2 comments:

  1. So I have to add something to this - Kristi Coulter informs me that I can SKIP through these ads! When they first come up, there is a note at the bottom that says something like This Ad Will Run For 30 Seconds. So I resigned myself to that. Apparently AFTER that, though, another line comes on that says Skip This Ad Now, like on YouTube. Totally whiffed on that; thanks to Kristi for getting me squared away...

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  2. The layering of adverts is relentless. The squeezing in every possible corner. The tags on TV screen corners. The promos at the bottom of the screen during the time actual programming is taking place. The product placement. The logos on clothing. You have to watch Idiocracy (2006) to see it taken to the limit. Add to that the unseen sharing of searches, user clicks, mouse-overs and personal preferences. I understand we're only targets to those who sell. But taken too far, it undermines the existence of privacy, of public, of public space, of citizenship and of life outside the context of money and materialism. It keeps the people's voice quiet. Bread and circuses. The youth must be so inured to it, in their eyes, I am hopelessly out-dated. Obviously I need to get out of the future's way. It would take a massive systemic collapse to stop corporations from the continued buying of lawmakers and the courts.
    Don't take it personally, it's just business.

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Civility.