Return to "normal" tv.

[BigFitz]

I don't usually miss commercials on tv, but I would like to see a Geico commercial again or any product or service for that matter. Here in Ohio, the regular commercials have been almost entirely supplanted by "other" advertisements during the past couple of months, especially the last several weeks. A charmin commercial would be welcome change. It could even be a metaphor, cleaning up the residue of the "other" seasonal advertising.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

[video=youtube;7ufkCzmR7PQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ufkCzmR7PQ[/video]

 

[LocktownDog]

Another swing-stater here. I haven't listened to the radio or watched tv (other than TCM or Netflix or Hulu) in 6 months. I just couldn't take it anymore. I'd kill to see something normal like the Pillsbury Dough Boy again.

 

[hatophile]

Yeah, if you're in a swing state it's worse for sure (from another Ohio resident). Not to mention the constant phone calls with pleas for money or votes.

I'm not even a big TV watcher but it's getting ridiculous, especially as the election gets closer.

 

[Captain Lex]

I'm in a solidly blue state, so we've been largely spared most of the advertisements. In fact, for a long while I heard people in the national stage complain about attack ads and I was like, "What attack ads?"

But of course, I barely watch any TV with commercials anyway.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I haven't seen a political commercial all season, but I'm getting really sick of all the flyers and circulars in my mailbox accusing X candidate of lying about Y. I'm going to accumulate a big pile of these things and send them back to the party headquarters postage due.

As for "attack ads," probably the first significant one came in 1936. The Republican National Committee bought half an hour of time on CBS for Senator Arthur Vandenburg to use attacking President Roosevelt thru the use of out-of-context recording clips from his 1932 campaign speeches. The broadcast had Vandenburg posing questions to the President and used the recordings to simulate answers, a technique which had never been used before, and which caused the network to cut the broadcast off the air after about fifteen minutes -- on the grounds that it violated the network's prohibition on the use of recordings. The Republicans claimed the network was censoring its right to free speech, and proceeded to sell transcriptions of the original broadcast to local stations, where it was heard frequently thru the last weeks of the campaign.

 

[tonyb]

I wish to offer my heartfelt thanks to those of you in the swing states, for the money the campaigns and "outside groups" (to put it euphemistically) are spending in your states is money they aren't spending here, where it is really quite bad enough as it is. Not a day goes by that I don't get hit pieces in the mailbox and robo-calls warning that the apocalypse is nigh if this or that or the other candidate or ballot measure wins or loses.

It's not that I avoid TV altogether, or commercial radio, but I try not to make too regular a habit of either. So that helps me maintain a healthy blood pressure. I can only imagine how tired the regular TV viewers in, say, Ohio, are getting of all of this.

 

[Aerojoe]

Was the TV "normal" ever? :eeek:

A charmin commercial would be welcome change.

I don't welcome any commercial at all, OMG :eusa_doh: I once expended one whole year without watching TV. It's amazing all the free time you find to do other interesting things.

 

[Atticus Finch]

I convinced there will be no broadcast media after November 6. They all will have made so much money from the newly formed PACs, they will shut down the networks and all retire to Tahiti.

On November 7th, we’ll switch on our television sets and see only static.

AF

 

[tonyb]

...

On November 7th, we’ll switch on our television sets and see only static.

AF

The blushing bride and I got some ridiculously high number of channels coming in over the cable, and sometimes it seems all I'm seeing is static.

Bzzzt.

 

[LocktownDog]

Closing in one billion dollars ... let me write that out numerically ... $1,000,000,000 spent on political ads by both campaigns combined. Mind-blowing. You'd think our schools have all the resources they need, there are no more soup kitchens, disease has been wiped out, etc.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

With California being the political backwater in this Silly Season we've been spared the barrage of campaign ads (excepting the ones for local races and ballot measures). In fact I've seen very few Obama or Romney yard signs.

 

[1961MJS]

Hi

I don't have a TV now, paying Cox $59 a month for basic internet is enough for them (since I don't own stock). I'm also in Oklahoma, which is slightly red, so I doubt anyone would waste their money anyway. The ONLY thing I've missed seeing on basic TV is football, and I just haven't bothered to work Hulu and Netflix etc to find a way to do that via the internet.

I'm convinced that the current "ban" on automatically calling cell phones will be gone by January 2013. I haven't heard a single attack ad phone call, but my Mom in Illinois, with a land line has pretty much quit answering that phone. If politicians can't "communicate with the electorate", well that can't possibly be legal.

Remember you heard it here first.

 

[sheeplady]

We have one local hotly contested race... I now hate both the candidates. Their dumb campaigns call our house constantly, and when they ask how I will vote, I tell them that I think they are both ********.

I do not kid.

 

[Mr. Hallack]

I get all the stupid flyers in the mail too, which my youngest has a grand old time tearing up into shreds. Haven't had television in several years, so I've seen nothing there. I've heard a few radio ads, but I have a CD player in my car to take care of that. Some of my Facebook "friends" post political crap which gets them unsubscribed (from all ends of the political spectrum) When these political calls on cell phones start coming in, they will be promptly ignored as I do with any number I don't know or is unknown or restricted. (If it's important they can leave a message and I'll call back)

 

[Hunter_aka_Scotty]

Was the TV "normal" ever? :eeek:



I don't welcome any commercial at all, OMG :eusa_doh: I once expended one whole year without watching TV. It's amazing all the free time you find to do other interesting things.

^^^ THIS! I haven't payed for TV service in over 2 years.... I never will again.

 

[Gregg Axley]

I don't watch the local channels, but I have heard a few local races ads.
Other than that, we really haven't seen too many ads.
Why? All our shows are in reruns, so we don't watch anything that isn't on DVD or DVR (movies).
After Tuesday it will be a moot point, and btw some of our shows are starting their seasons back up. :eusa_clap

 

[sheeplady]

I get all the stupid flyers in the mail too, which my youngest has a grand old time tearing up into shreds. Haven't had television in several years, so I've seen nothing there. I've heard a few radio ads, but I have a CD player in my car to take care of that. Some of my Facebook "friends" post political crap which gets them unsubscribed (from all ends of the political spectrum) When these political calls on cell phones start coming in, they will be promptly ignored as I do with any number I don't know or is unknown or restricted. (If it's important they can leave a message and I'll call back)

I registered for an absentee ballot because I can't go to the polling place... if you think that you get mail for political stuff, you have never seen this. The absentee ballot came with 12 (get that 12) separate mailings that all started with "Because you got an absentee ballot we can tell you care about voting." The worse part is my husband also got an absentee ballot... and he got another 12 mailings too.

The good thing about all the political stuff on facebook is I now know I have friends all over the spectrum...

 

[Gregg Axley]

I registered for an absentee ballot because I can't go to the polling place... if you think that you get mail for political stuff, you have never seen this. The absentee ballot came with 12 (get that 12) separate mailings that all started with "Because you got an absentee ballot we can tell you care about voting." The worse part is my husband also got an absentee ballot... and he got another 12 mailings too.

The good thing about all the political stuff on facebook is I now know I have friends all over the spectrum...

I think I read the other day, that these "bulk" mailings are propping up the post office for now.
While they are not close friends, I do have associates at the local post office, and it's nice to see someone is still giving them something to do.
Sheeplady, think of it this way. Political ads and even voting material will either flood your mailbox or your inbox..pick one.

 

[Dan Allen]

The only thing original on television IS the commercials, and the politicians have taken that away from us. A good book has become my companion until the storm has passed.