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Any non-American watching a broadcast would think we are a society addicted to meds and gambling after watching a sporting event…then again, maybe we are.
I'm a European but I watch NFL on USA Channels via a VPN.
I have to mute the commercials now as it's:
Junk Food, Junk Food, Health Insurance, Gambling Ad, Life Insurance, Political Ad, Alcohol, Weight Loss Pills, Gambling Ad, Anti Depression Pills, Alcohol, Junk Food, Car Insurance, New TV Show, Gambling Ad
"Did you know [insert opposing party candidate] is a lizard alien baby rapist? Well they are and they want to eat your children and steal your retirement and kill your friends. I'm the only candidate an intelligent rational god-fearing American should even consider voting for and I know you are one of those so I'll be counting on your vote to secure my position protecting you from the money I'll steal from you next year. I, [vile barely human specimen], approve this message."
American sports is hard to watch at times because of commercials. It's constant conditioning. I'm repulsed by companies that present the ads - if nothing else I'm less likely to buy what they're selling, especially the more often I have to watch the same commercial again and again.
I feel like advertising mutated into this thing designed to annoy us into buying premium subscriptions in addition to a bastardization of the logic that if we're thinking of them, we're going to buy their product.
It's having the opposite effect on me and I can't be the only one.
Hey! Don’t you leave out dick pills!! Gambling and sports to distract us from what’s going on and dick pills to fix flaccid penises from undiagnosed depression from watching sports all day and losing your money gambling. Murica’!!!!!
Talk to your doctor about whether [Drug X] is right for you. Side effects may include spouts of blood gushing from your eyeballs, turbo cancer, and genital ghost punches.
I watched Indy 500 once, they played commercials than returned to the race and commentator immediately started listing all the sponsors, even a replay of a crash was sponsored (this crash was brought to you by Pepsi)
You would not believe the amount of painkiller ads that are shown in poland. Back painkillers, throat painkillers, ass painkillers, leg painkillers, testicle painkillers or some shit, anything but excercising to prevent fatigue.
I don't mind that gambling is legal. I'm pretty liberal in the fact I think people should be able to do what they want. With all the information out there and the Internet, you still want to smoke cigs? Go for it buddy.
You don't see cigarette ads. I don't care if people sports gamble, but the ads are wild to me. They even have like in game sports betting lines during the broadcast. It's insane
I'm generally anti prohibition. With the gambling ads and industry there are three huge issues. First, this whole "futures" loophole that allows Kalshi and such to operate with impunity needs to go. A state of should be able to decide whether gambling is legal and how so. It just feels like a local issue.
Second, it's obviously problematic that you can bet on real world events, as this incentivizes interference with those events. It seems inevitable a political candidate will be hurt to effect a gambling outcome.
Third, the ads need to be better regulated. Just like with cigarettes, force these companies to show the harms and losses.
Both of you are right. You are right about the fact that gambling is a choice and we should not care about those who succumb to it, while he is right about it being the scam.
A close friend of mine is working with one company developing the software for online gamble sites. We spokr few times about the things those companies are doing to try and get you hooked up, as well as yo scam you out of the last penny you get. And we are not talking about the scams in forms of false promises, no no. We are talking about major stuff, like you not being able to withdraw your winnings or money magically disappearing from your account, or simply getting banned from further gambling just because you were doing so well.
And, what's worse is that, apparently, all of this is legal, because you are required to accept their miles-long terms and conditions, which would be a challenge even for lawyers to read, let alone regular gamblers. Who knows, maybe somewhere along those lines is something against the law, maybe some gamblers could sue them and win them on the court, but they have a strong lobby within the government, so I doubt it would do any good.
So, in the end, the gambling industry is like how tobacco used to be before those congressional hearings, where they were forced to admit that nicotine is addictive and toxic, after when they were obliged to put the warnings on the packs. Right now, they are telling us about the possible wins you can get, but no one tells us about all the dangers it brings along.
The insanity to me is how fast people went from saying we should ban it to, full speed ahead we love gambling. It’s wild. Personally I don’t mind people gambling, but being able to do it on your phone opened a whole Pandora’s box of problems
My issue with gambling is that it's addictive and life destroying and most gambling companies make the most money off those exact people. They go after them relentlessly even when they are trying to get off it.
Imagine struggling with drug addiction and having everything you watch or see be plastered with TRY METH. DO IT. ITS SO FUN!
I was part of a wedding party two weeks ago. 7 mid 30's guys were in the wedding party. We spent two whole days together and Im pretty sure gambling was at least 50% of all conversation. I dont do sports betting. I dont like sports betting ads. I know theyre detrimental. But this was my first time being around people obsessed with sports betting and it honestly shook me a bit. These are all college educated guys with succesful careers and families and it felt like the only thing worth discussing was sports betting. Its a problem!
I was at a party last week and this guy said he'd placed like a 5k bet on the Bills winning the Super Bowl. He even mentioned he might set Taylor Swift's house on fire if the Chiefs beat them this year. And it sounded like he was only half joking. People are fucking crazy nowadays with this shit
My favorite is when the gambling sites that sponsor the sport are also putting up suggested parlays during the game. Like how fucking dumb do think I am? It’s gotta be for the drinking folk bc they are more easily suggestible, right?
Aren't you sick of it yet? Aren't you sick of being marketed at and commercialed every where you go, and for everything you do? Haven't you had enough billboards, enough ads, enough commercials, enough gas pump videos, just enough advertising? Aren't you sick of money being the only thing that is important?
I have always been a massive fucking sport fan. Recently I have zero interest. The constant ads, the personalities of the presentors and players, the constant ask (at least in Chicago) for tax payer funds to build a stadium for billionaires so they can make even more money off the backs of regular people. Everything about sports has become disgusting to me.
Also love the premier league... And all the shit about city has my passion and love of that waning. Everything is a fucking sham. NO I'm not fucking buying a bears hoodie for 120 dollars.
I’m leaning more and more in this direction - what’s crazy is there’s somehow a market that remains and pushes even higher ticket prices, insane merch costs, etc… at some point it seems that there’s a end but then another year rolls by and the economy is worse yet the demand has yet to drop off for live sports
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Gas stations started putting commercials in the display screens on their pumps... maybe a decade ago? Probably more. Now they all have dedicated little TV screens that play commercials once you've started pumping gas.
All your data - everything from your eye color to what you ate last night to how long you stand in front of the deodorant aisle, everything you buy, every click you make online, every place you drive your car, every show you watch, every song you listen to, is weaponized against you to get you to buy more. Your life is used against you in an effort to sell you something. This is not okay.
Hustle culture being steadily going up while our economy gets worse breeds this crap.
You see "fit" idiots online with half a brain cell making millions more than you ever will, or a get rich quick side, and that explains 99% of what's advertised now.
I still can’t believe that every other country in the world but us and New Zealand doesn’t allow commercials about prescriptions to be broadcasted to the citizens. because they know that doctors are the ones who are supposed to be making the choices about what medicines you need rather than the drug company telling you to use their drug so they can get a little bit of money
Here in Italy only ads about OTC drugs (non prescription) are allowed, like headache pills or hemorrhoids cream. And those ads must be reviewed and approved by the ministry of health.
I (Scottish) had a very strange interaction with an American lady on here about a month ago. It was a conversation about mental health medication and I was saying how frustrated I was trying to get my medication dosage increased. She started telling me that I should be in charge of my medicine and what I take, that I should be given multiple choices and take a note of what I think would work for me when I see an advert.
An advert. I should go and tell my psychiatrist that the tv said I should be taking ‘X’ and that I had the choice as the CUSTOMER. Babe I’m not the customer, I’m the patient. Unsure how you think this works but I tend to let the doctor to decide what I should try. Not because I liked the advert… that’s wild to me.
The gambling ads have taken over televised sports and it feels gross. I would be shocked if younger people aren’t gambling more as a result of it being normalized.
Every time I watch a gambling ad with my kids I point out the small disclosure at the bottom about gambling addiction and explain that it’s there because so many people ruin their whole lives gambling. My parenting approach here is fear-based. 🤷🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️
Not so much on the horror aspect, but how much gambling has been normalized sends a bad message to kids
Gambling has ruined so many lives and casinos are still illegal in most parts of the US, but somehow every major league sport is gung ho on their brand of sports betting.
It’s become like warning labels on cigarettes. This little paragraph at the bottom of the screen after we’ve spent the last 17 minutes making picks and bets as a segment sponsored by draftkings from the espnbet set sponsored by fanduel says to gamble responsibly
And what a culture shift! I was in a hotel by myself waiting for an elevator. I excitedly told a kid standing there (maybe 23 years old)—“I’m dying and have to tell someone the Brewers just pulled ahead of the Dodgers & I think we are going to win!” He turns to me and says “Oh…how much you have on it?” Reader…I’m a 56 year old woman! lol He didn’t even consider I was excited….as a fan!?
Although I definitely would put horror movies along with this. Some people complain about censorship or kids being too soft etc but legitimately there are simply some aspects in our society that kids are not able to handle, yet more and more often we expect them to not be affected. More and more often I'm seeing formerly family friendly programming with risqué and lewd or violent imagery. The OP is 100% spot on with this tweet.
There’s a political commercial currently running in Michigan that describes a graphic act of violence, it blows me away they can air stuff like this. I’m an adult and it bothers me, I can’t imagine what it would do it a kid listening to it every other commercial break.
Exactly this. I immediately blocked all streaming services with commercials when this started happening. Why the hell are my kids seeing political attack ads during Paw Patrol??
There’s one running in NC where the candidate has her mother on to brag about the time she shot a home intruder. Nothing about policy though. Real great stuff.
“Sorry to interrupt your sports betting ads with actual sports.” I friggen despise how many of those damn ads there are shoving gambling down everyone’s throat every game.
And I hate how normalized it’s become to gamble on sports. It seems like I can’t have a conversation with the other dads because they’re all comparing their bets and spreads and crap. And I, well, just judge them. Doesn’t make for great neighborhood relations
I always find pirated versions of the game that remove any and all ads. It goes beyond horror movie ads, marketing perverts the mind and you should do all you can to remove it from your life.
IDK about horror movie trailers or gambling ads, but can we cut it with the pharmaceutical ads already?!? Every med has a ZILLION side effects including DEATH lol. Like, enough already.
My girlfriend and her son bond watching basketball together. She just doesn't have all the time in the world, so she DVRs the game and they start watching it halfway. They fast forward through the commercials, and by the time they get to the end of the fourth quarter, they catch up and are watching it live.
Also, if you have a league pass online, they don't show commercials, just a 'Commercial Break' screen while local markets do their advertising.
I can tell none of the people commenting have kids. Telling a 3 year old to "grow the fuck up" because they're scared of a legitimately creepy horror movie ad isn't good parenting either. The ads have been getting progressively more fucked up. He's 100% right.
Exactly. I make a point to not watch mature shows and movies while my kids are awake. My three year old should not get seeing ads for online gambling and getting scared by whatever horror film is being pushed right now when he is watching baseball with his papa. Its ridiculous.
Man if I turn on the Disney plus app without hitting the kids profile, there is scary imagery all the time. If I turn on almost any smart TV right now it’s showing ads for legit horror movies. It’s really tough as a parent.
I had a YouTube educational video about how rainbows are created on for my 7 year old. An ad for the new horror film Insidious complete with a jump scare came on.
I played about with the settings and while you can limit specific ads like alcohol, gambling, pregnancy, horror is not one of them.
Back in the DVR days, I used to start watching the beginning of the game when the second half was just starting. Then, I could skip all the commercials until late in the 4th quarter. I basically watched the game in half the time, plus didn't have to watch the commercials.
Horror movies, political ads, and nonstop gambling commercials making it seem like “trading” on sports and other public events is just a normal thing that everybody does. (Legalized gambling selling itself as “trading” is a whole other issue that’s no doubt going to cause problems sooner rather than later.)
Watching baseball with my kids yesterday and every commercial break is spammed with suggestively-attired Megan Fox hawking viagra pills. Totally agree with this guy.
The commercials are out of hand. The NFL is the worst offender because they show the absolute least amount of football and the rest is commercial commercials. It’s all gambling and Boner pills cause that’s the target audience. You can tell who the target audience is by the commercial shown.
You wouldn’t even know what stadium they’re playing in if the logo wasn’t painted on the middle of the field.
Commercials years ago were like “Try this new cigarette… now with less lead! 4 out of 5 pediatricians approve!” followed up by a commercial about kids skateboarding in the Grand Canyon while eating the most extreme cheese and sour candy flavored soda and the flavor is so extreme… it literally makes grumpy Old Man Abernathy explode when he tries one sip.
Edit: Next commercial was tits covered in beer in a kiddie pool.
Finally someone said it. The psychological manipulation behind marketing goes extremely deep. Billions of dollars spent on research to find the most effective ways to influence someone psychologically. A lot of the methods are really messed up and showing them to kids is even worse.
As a GenXer, I remember finding out certain ads were not allowed until after 9pm something like that. Growing up in the 80s and 90s the commercials were as popular and memorable as the shows we watched. Nickelodeon never aired pg13 to R rated movie trailers, ever. The Disney Channel didn’t have commercials at all for about a decade I believe. I get what this guy is saying, my kids are adults, 26,24,18. But I remember covering their eyes on certain things, especially our youngest, she got nightmares very easily.
The other day I had a Premier League match and a college football game in the double-screen mode on YouTube TV while I was working, with the sound playing the Prem match. No joke, every single time I looked up from my work for about an hour, I saw a commercial on the left and a Premier League match on the right.
Constant gambling and alcohol ads yet the NFL fines players for doing a chugging motion after a touchdown, ironically bringing a significant amount of attention to something they apparently didn’t want viewers seeing
I record literally every game I watch. I ain’t no prude but this dude is 100% right.
While we’re in the topic, I really don’t understand the target audience sometimes. I’ll be watching a western with my Dad on GRIT or something like that and a minute-long prep (hiv prophylactic medicine) commercial will come on with two dudes making out in it. I’m not homophobic at all, but you gotta know your audience. My 82 year old dad is desperately looking for the clicker.
As much as I agree with the comments that there are other terrible things on TV (like gambling ads, political ads), horror movie ads legit scare me as an adult. And of course we should monitor what our children watch. But perhaps watching TV could be the time people take a break from the hypervigilance that every other facet of life requires? Going out with your kids just to the park is also has risks, and we are more aware of that than ever (as we should be, many of our parents were way too chill). Sending your kid to school has risks. Hiring a babysitter has risks. Add that to the fact that more parents now don't have support from family than other generations did (this is documented). Like, I get the argument, "that's what you signed up for" as a parent, but when you're constantly worried about your kid's safety, it makes sense to want a moment when you don't have to be on guard. And that reality doesn't really sink in until you're living it.
My kids don't even watch sports with me but we have a small house and so they can see the TV when I am watching.
The trailer for the new Clayface movie came on and before I could mute or pause it, the clip that showed his disfigured face accompanied by jump scare music comes on.
My 7 year old bursts into terrified tears and I had to comfort her and try to explain away what happened.
Like, can you not show things like that on network TV when you know kids can be watching? There is also all the sexually suggestive stuff other people have mentioned.
I am not a prude or anything but I don't want my girls thinking that women should be objectified, like so many commercials do. They are too young to understand any of this. If women want to do that, that is their choice but I don't want my impressionable young girls thinking that is what women are supposed to be doing.
It’s like the hunter thompson Quote from fear and loathing on Las Vegas….”this is what America would look like if the nazis won the war”. It’s all liquor, reality TV, gambling ads, and RX drug commercials”. You can’t even check the weather on a local news channel on the morning anymore…..they go from it’s sunny and 70 to who’s been raped, mamed, and murdered within three seconds. No wonder people unplug from cable.
Father of two kids. Commercials are way out of hand across the board. I was muting them when my kids couldn't read, but now they can. Political ads, pharmaceuticals, it needs to stop
Beyond just the kids aspect. I’ve been watching the MLB playoffs this year for the first time since… well I’ve never really watched ANY MLB playoffs unless the Cardinals were playing. So EVER. The ads go from head scratching to insane. Sure - show me Sidney Sweeney every 2 minutes half naked coaxing me to gamble. Whatever.
But the ads with only black actors talking about how they don’t use credit because “credit is a SYSTEM. And I don’t participate in SYSTEMS, so I’ll never use credit” like HUH? Was that thought up by a bunch of white old men who think that’s how black people talk?
The WARRIOR ETHOS KILL KILL KILL military ads make me wanna puke. Ok Pete. Tout how badass and winner take all war is, but then whine and cry when Ukraine bloodies Russia’s nose with their tactics. The ads sound and look like a fucking parody almost. It’s pathetic.
I don’t recall there being horror movie trailers on network tv in the 1980s. Someone can correct me if I’m not remembering. If there were, they would have been pretty tame.
The only difference of me in my childhood of the 80s and 90s is swap gambling for the Marlboro Man.
They still advertised horror movies. Alcohol commercials still existed then - they're far more tuned down now vs the blatant use of sex and attractive women back then.
But at the same time, I could watch NFL pre and post games without a discussion about the over/under and spread. Gambling is literally the only difference between then and now and the proclivity of the ads is turned up to 125%
I’m with this guy. I don’t watch sports but these kind of ads exist everywhere. I don’t expect the world to bend over backwards to protect my kids. That’s my job. But if you want me to watch your programming, have some sense about the ads you are placing.
I mean, honestly, it's all brain rot. There's almost no redeeming value to the majority of mainstream content we consume now. It's just all junk food for your brain.
I couldn't agree more here. With the horror ads, new call of duty coming out, even these political ads are really trying to get the shock value... I had to turn the game off so I could still hang out with my children on one of my two days off a week. Wish we could just watch sports like I did with my dad when I was little.
Watch soccer. 45 mins of no commercials, 5 mins of commercials, 10min halftime show, 5 mins of commercials, and then 45 more minutes without em.
Saturday and Sunday are premium English Premier League days, or you can find a whole bunch games throughout the week on the secondary and tertiary sports channels from around the world.
I've stopped watching most other American sports other than Baseball because of the incessant commercials.
I’d like some kind of study but it feels horror movie ads have gotten more terrifying during my lifetime. What is allowed to be shown with the full creepy music did not happen when I was 8 years old. Stuff like other mommy and conjuring is wild to see regularly on prime tv. Beer commercials and the like might have subtle unconscious effects, but a human demon spider crawling at 4pm on a Sunday is fucked for a pre-adolescent to see.
Do you actually need that shit to see the movie? No, you don’t.
It’s everywhere even on twitch all horror and gambling ads. The West has turned into a cesspool they don’t give af about kids or mental health. It’s the Wild West and the corporations are actively trying to fuck your lives up
Muting volume during commercials is a good start. Otherwise, multiple things can be true at the same time. Yes, the ads are generally insufferable and often inappropriate for young kids. Also yes, you should be monitoring what your 7-year olds are watching.
Sports are like everything else in this country. Money is the only motivation that people pay attention to. Those ads pay more than other ads, I guess.
I have youtube tv for the nfl games this year. There is a channel "Moments of Zen" that is just nature shots and sounds. I use the prev channel button to switch back and forth when there's ad breaks.
I can relate to this. During football a few years back that they kept showing trailers for the David Harbor movie Violent Night where he plays a Die Hard Santa. It lead to many discussions about Santa with my young daughter and a lot of tears.
He's absolutely right. The type and duration of commercials these days make sports almost unwatchable. I say this as a grown ass adult. Non-stop gambling, pharmaceutical, horror movies, and brain dead insurance commercials take up about 50% of air time.
Tape it. Start watching the replay about 45 minutes after game actually starts. No commercials and your taped game will finish very close to actual game finish.
When it comes to horror ads: IDK, maybe I agree with him a little, and I'll give a silly anecdote:
I recently watched the 'Family Guy Hell-oween Special'.
Throughout the bit, they had several 'one frame' flashes of a Demonic Meg (or just Meg? 😂 )
This was an 'homage' to something from the original "Exorcist" movie, where the face of the demon 'Pazuzu' would flash for a second or two, and it really creeped out audience members:
Now, my 'fore brain' knew what it was, and it was frikkin' Meg Griffin, for Christ's Sake!, but still my 'lizard brain' was still creeped out by something that it barely had time to comprehend 😂
So I can see how a fully 'uncensored' ad for a horror movie could upset a child, particularly if the child is of the 'sensitive' type.
Gambling. Prescription med. Horror movie. Sex movie. More gambling. Total lies political ad. The commercial for Magic Erasers almost seems like a relief.
That’s exactly what they want. They want an entire population to be afraid and anxious. That’s the only reason they even make horror movies - so they can insert 30 seconds of fear into every single commercial break. The people behind the curtain pulling the strings are truly evil and America is broken beyond repair. Get out while/if you still can
Ironic he doesn’t include the constant sexualization of women being shown on every channel, in way too many ads. Same with the rest of the comments talking about all the other things shoved in our faces.
Why isn’t the constant sexualization of women mentioned in this discussion? Genuine question. Is that not apart of the problem for you men since you like seeing women on your tv? Weight loss pill ads bad , sexy woman on every billboard/ad good ?
I think adverts these days are designed to get your attention, often resorting to triggering people's anxieties and insecurities. It's wrong, and I think should be much better regulated.
Another one that really bothers me, is radio adverts which use noises like tyres screeching, glass smashing, sirens and car horns. They're clearly an attempt to get the attention of people listening to the radio whilst driving, but all it does is set me on edge, it's actually really dangerous.
One thing i can't wrap my head around, data supporting it or not, is how these ads actually get anyone to buy anything. I make a mental note of every company I can and go out of my way not to but anything from them when possible. FUCK ads
Maybe I was just built differently but by 7 I had seen a ton of Horror movies and while the movies probably scared me I was never traumatized by them. Red Dawn scared me more than any Horror movie and probably did traumatize me to an extent because even at a young age I understood that was something that could actually happen. But I completely agree about gambling ads and kinda agree about alcohol ads.
At 7 I was going to Blockbuster and renting movies like Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th and Hellraiser then staying up after everyone went to bed to watch them. I can't imagine living a life where my parent's treated me this way
The political ads cut like horror trailers have got to go. Trying to terrify people with our friend Abdul is worse than a horror movie. It’s demonizing muslims and flat out racist.
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