COMMERCIALS I HAVE GROWN TO DESPISE

 

When you get to be my age and you suffer from some mobility challenges, you watch a lot of television. That's what I do. 

 

This column is going to be about commercials. Now, I understand that's how television is paid for but lately it has gotten a little silly.

 

I'm going to talk about some commercials that really have caught my eye. 

 

Have you ever wondered how much cheaper car insurance would be if the companies didn't spend so much on television ads? It seems to me that car insurance companies dominate the screen most of the time. I used to like Geico and their gecko spokes lizard, but he got old too. Then there is Progressive, who evidently thinks insurance is similar to a butcher shop, and Liberty Mutual, who uses a spokes emu. What any of this has to do with car insurance is beyond me. There are also Allstate, Farmers, State Farm, USAA and so many others that I cannot name. 

 

Their ads are so pervasive that they seem to run together. It is hard for me to believe that these commercials sell much car insurance. Maybe they do, but I wonder. The sellers of these ad spots would tell you they do. You be the judge. 

 

How ridiculous are ads for prescription medicine? You have to have a doctor write a prescription in order to get the medicine. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to go to a doctor who needed my opinion as to what medicine I should be taking. Again, the ad sellers claim that these ads are very effective and definitely increase the sales of the medicines in question. Seems pretty squirrely to me. 

 

I am old enough to remember when it was considered unethical for lawyers or doctors to advertise. Here in southern Georgia, these two professions dominate the airwaves. Apparently it is no longer considered unethical to advertise. 

 

We have a law firm named Farah and Farah who advertises heavily. You basically cannot turn on your TV without seeing their ads. 

 

We also have a chiropractor named Doc Tony who himself advertises constantly. Not long ago Doc Tony ran an ad in which he has with him his pet ferrets. He said their names were "Ferret and Ferret". He said in his ad that ferrets were members of the weasel family. Makes you wonder if Doc Tony was sued by Farah and Farah. Now, I don't know if he had a beef with Farah and Farah, but the ad didn't run very long. Makes you wonder. 

 

My least favorite advertising is political ads. In the last election Georgia was front and center because of the split in the Senate. Millions and millions were spent on ads. Of course the media outlets love it. That's where the money lands. 

 

My biggest problem with political ads is that they don't have to be truthful. The politicians exempted themselves from any "truth in advertising" rules. If you are a car dealer and you put an ad on television, it has to be true. Not so for politicians. They take full advantage of that. 

 

On occasion I watch public television. They claim to be paid for by donations. They don't sell commercial spots. I timed some of the programming. Just like regular television, they show about forty minutes of program and twenty minutes of commercials. The commercials are a bit different in that they say the advertisement is paid for by a grant rather than by an invoice. The result is the same.  

 

Some of you are probably saying I should get a real life. Okay. I agree. After all, I am watching these commercials on HD, big screen, high fidelity, etc. etc. It could be worse.

 

Ron Scarbro May 24, 2021