Loud Ads

[texasaurus]

My next cause:

Effort to Shush Loud TV Commercials

Every year, television networks receive thousands of complaints from viewers bothered by commercials that seem to be getting louder and louder. They're tired of fumbling for the remote control and having the quiet moments in their romantic films spoiled by ads that sound louder than the loudest blockbuster movie explosions.

article:

http://www.livescience.com/culture/0...mmercials.html

[Gear Jammer]

...and the advertisers wonder why people so happily skip through the ads with their DVR's.
Perhaps it's in part because we're tired of ya'll screaming at us ya moe-rons.

Supposedly it's illegal for them to raise the volume level ads are recorded at, and stations to raise the volume level they are played at, but as I understand it, they get around that by raising the levels on everything else to 11, base, treble, and all between, which makes it sound much louder.

I see they address that in the article, now that I actually read it...seems it's a bit more complex than my simple explanation.

[Domestic Goddess]

Also? We bought a tv a while back that was supposed to address that. It works fine for regular tuning and station commercials but That freaking Burger King commercial scared the shit out of my nephew, it was so loud (literally, like, he's nine months old and he shit himself).

This is one reason I DVR stuff and FF through. The other reason is that I don't actually get to sit and watch tv.

[texasaurus]

WASHINGTON – Legislation to turn down the volume on loud TV commercials that send couch potatoes diving for their remote controls looks like it'll soon become law.

The Senate late Wednesday unanimously passed a bill to require television stations and cable companies to implement industry standards capping the volume of commercials and equalizing the volume between ads and other programming.

The House has passed similar legislation but minor differences have to be worked out when Congress returns to Washington after the Nov. 2 election.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100930/..._commercials_1

We'll see.

[FulanoDeTal]

I've seen some of the more clever advertisers use this to their advantage and use little or no sound to make us look up when we hear the difference from the last commercials. Makes you think there is something wrong and you look at the screen right when they flash their main message.

[texasaurus]