Why Are TV Adverts Getting So Stupid?

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Wasn't it in Australia that somebody ran an ad that said "Buy more beef, you bastards!" ? Though I was told that "bastard" isn't considered offensive in Australia. Truth be told, most of the UK working class and quite a lot of the middle class are quite comfortable with it. I don't know who was behind the drive to make it taboo. Possibly the Victorian clergy. Among the "bastard cancel culture," it's not just taboo to call somebody one (I can just about see the point of that), it's using the word at all.

I have been known to laugh at ads, but usually I'm laughing at them, not with them, and even when I laugh with them, it doesn't make me buy the product.

Given that bastard is considered to be a pejorative term, quite honestly it seems to me that I've seldom heard somebody call somebody else a bastard, at least not recently. Perhaps it's gone out of favor, nobody cares whether or not it's acceptable.

Yes the term "bastard" is a pejorative but in the colloquial Aussie "lingo" its used quite liberally. Paul Hogan is actually a very sanitised version of the average Aussie in terms of language, We use (both males and females) the f-word, the c-word and the term bastard. Nearly every schoolboy/girl does.

The "earthy" nature of Australian colloquialism is from our roots from the Cockney/Irish street talk from the streets of London, Birmingham and Manchester. In a case of parallel evolution it also influenced the accents of South African English speakers and even Southern US accent. Both of the latter also tend toward less refined more cruder language too. You kind of get a glimpse of it in the popular Netflix TV series "Peaky Blinders".

Our media puts filters on how Australians are presented to the world but watch/google the caricature of actor Barry Crocker called "Barry MacKenzie" or mostly banned comedian Rodney Rude. Their speech is more typical of the average Aussie behind closed doors.

So I posit our advertising/comedy is probably cruder/stupid > US because it appeals to us at a base level.

I was going to say the same thing.

I haven't had a tv in my house for some time now, so I really have no clue if recent ads have taken stupid to a new level, but I recall commercials from years ago being beyond stupid.

I feel the same way about movies and TV shows. It's why I seldom watch TV anymore unless I'm streaming things I already know I like such as The Golden Girls, Courage the Cowardly Dog, or Night of the Living Dead.

I actually find informercials where everyone is an idiot to be entertaining because of their absurdity.

One of my favourite improv prompts is 'You're in an informercial but it becomes increasingly more unclear what you're trying to sell'. There's a lot of fun to be had with that one. Plenty of opportunity for misdirection.

An ad that I find annoying features a talking blob of snot (in US)

You clearly haven't seen talking poo or bacteria or flies in adverts. I particularly dislike constipation and bathroom adverts.

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It's not new. Back in the early 60s they'd screen an ad for soap powder that talked about "the understains, the ones you can't even talk about," usually as we were eating. As it was the soundtrack rather than the picture, you couldn't fix it by looking away.

I don't really mind adverts me.

On internet news sites and youtube there are adverts for medical conditions, bathroom cleaners and an assortment of other unpalatable things. It's one of the reasons my wife uses Youtube premium so she doesn't have to see these ads.

It's ironic considering the lengths the supermarkets go to to avoid putting toilet rolls next to food. They know all about the psychology of product contagion, but they don't extend the wisdom to screening ads at mealtimes. Not that it affects me these days. On-demand content is a step in the right direction, and I feel sorry for anybody who's still subject to the whims of live television, though I guess it's horses for courses.

On demand TV adverts are annoying but the content seems to often be other TV programs.

I think the adverts don't always match the content of the site. I've watched prestigious university videos on Youtube where the associated advertising includes internet scams and even products like sex toys (neither of which I subscribe to in my internet searches so seems odd they appear with education content?).

Not sure whether we mean the same thing when we say on-demand content. It's rare I see any of those silly banners and that thing at the end of a show where they push the credits to one side and advertise the next programme. They were increasingly happening when I used a VCR, but these days I go elsewhere. DailyMotion can be quite good, though not always.


Yes when ads do get through it's often clear that targeted marketing doesn't work. If it did work perfectly I'd be less averse to advertising generally - imagine getting nothing but genuine, sober offers you were actually interested in. But it's a pipe dream and I think most advertisers know that nearly all ads are simply annoying.

As for YouTube ads, I've heard they exist but I never saw one. I use Invidious to relay YT content without the rubbish. YT keeps nobbling it but it's always bounced back pretty quickly.

Whether you are watching on-demand programs from free-to-air or cable, there are always advertisements that are downloaded with the program that you can't skip.

On the flip side there are some advertisements that catch my attention and I let them run instead of skipping or switching off. I enjoy travel advertisements with catchy jingles/songs.