Sunday, September 6, 2009

Commercials


It has now been 50 years since I arrived on these shores. On July 26, 1959, I was admitted as a legal immigrant at Los Angeles airport. Although I had then no intention of staying permanently, I have spent nearly 35 of the last 50 years here. Yet in all these years one thing has never changed: the psychological shock, disgust, and anger about commercials, this most American and most un-American of institutions.

Commercials, these random interruptions of TV and radio programs to broadcast commercial advertisements, are an American invention, so ubiquitous, and such an integral part of American life that there is no escape. Almost everybody in America grows up surrounded by commercials from the cradle to the grave.

What makes the institution so un-American is the lack of choice, the element of coercion, which it shares with rape. America is supposed to be the embodiment of individual freedom and choice, yet society permits and tolerates the wholesale subjugation of individual preference to commercial interest. Commercials are in principle no different from political propaganda as practiced in dictatorships, a form of brainwashing.

I do not mean this as a tirade against advertising in general, as long as it is directed at consenting adults. But commercial advertising forced on unwilling and non-consenting adults and especially on children and teenagers is un-American.

Nobody seems to like commercials. Often they appeal to the basest human instincts: greed (this will make you rich, we are the cheapest, hurry), fear (take this medication or you may die of a heart attack, buy this DVD for your baby or she may be permanently left behind), and vanity (you deserve it, this will make you younger, you will lose 30 pounds in four weeks). Guilt feelings also work (buy this insurance or your family will be left penniless if you die, give to this charity and you save a child). Often the ads are mendacious, often they are in appallingly bad taste, but mostly they are just extremely boring, a big waste of time. Are there also appealing commercials, clever, funny, self-deprecating, artistically exciting? Of course, there are; but even they lose their charm after you have seen them a few times.

Commercials owe their staying power in large part to the myth that they give us ‘free’ TV. In reality nothing is 'free' and the cost of commercials to society and to the economy is staggering. Conservative statistics tell us that the average American watches three hours of television a day, one quarter of which is filled with commercials. In a week he or she sits through five hours of wasted time, which instead could be devoted to pleasure, play, work, reading, talking with your children, going for a walk, making love. If an hour of wasted time is valued at only $10 this amounts to a loss to the economy of $50x50x300 000 000 = $750 000 000 000 or $750 billion.

Add to this the production cost of all the television programs supported by commercials and also, of course, the production cost of the commercials themselves. We pay for the wasted time with our liberty; we pay for the cost of ‘free’ television with increased prices of the goods and services we buy. Each price contains a hidden ‘commercials’ tax, which acts like a sales tax and falls disproportionately on the poor. The tens of millions of dollars that athletes and other ‘celebrities’ are paid for appearing in commercials come out of your and my pocket.

Finally there is the cost of inappropriate decisions made by consumers as a result of listening to or watching commercials. If they are effective at all they have seduced people to do something they would otherwise not have done. It stands to reason that this is not in their interest. Nobody can forget the enormous damage done to all of us over many years by cigarette advertisements. None of the advertisements appeal to reason or just present facts and information, they all rely on emotional appeal and, more often than not, on sex appeal. Some are simply fraudulent, others just misleading, none tell the whole truth, all represent the interests of the advertiser not yours.

I do not know if they even accomplish the aims of the advertisers, that is, generate more profit. Much advertising is done to counteract advertising by the competition, an advertising arms race. Arms races of any kind are the saddest and most unproductive of human endeavors. Getting people to buy a product or a service for which they have felt no need or desire may contribute to the GDP. It certainly contributes to the destruction of the environment. It does not contribute to human happiness.

If they are so despised, boring, disgusting, and expensive, will commercials ever disappear? Not if political action is required. There are too many commercial interests at stake and our congress remains firmly in the pocket of the industry. A modest reform proposal would be that commercials may only be broadcast at the end of a program and, if it runs more than an hour, at the end of every hour. This would create predictability and largely eliminate the coercive element. But even such a modest reform of the institution is inconceivable; it is too ingrained in the American way of life.

There are some avenues of escape, however. One solution is not to watch TV or listen to the radio. Ever since the only classical music station in San Diego went off the air decades ago I have not listened to the radio. While I lived in Temecula for six years I also did without television. As a result I nearly missed the events of 9/11. I had a TV set to play DVDs and I scrounged up some old rabbit ears, which was good enough for a snowy and shaky picture of the dramatic events. Once a salesman for satellite TV came by. When I told him I did not have TV and did not want it he was visibly disturbed, mumbling ‘No TV, no TV’ as he left.

Some networks, such as PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) and cable channels such as TCM (Turner Classic Movies), are commercial-free. PBS is supported in part by taxes, in part by viewer contributions, and in part by grants and has been a mainstay of my viewing. TCM is a creation of Ted Turner, the founder of CNN. It broadcasts mostly old movies 24 hours a day. I sometimes turn to it just for relief from commercials.

Another solution is to pay for content and eliminate the “commercial’ tax. That would be fairest and most in conformance with the capitalist model. In some contexts the user has a choice: to pay a fee or to put up with advertising. This would be paying ransom: I hold you captive unless you pay me off. Even after paying ransom you would still pay the ‘commercial’ tax.

Ultimately technological change may render the issue moot. In the past, the major networks ABC, NBC, and CBS commanded 90% of the television audience; now it is only 30%. The Internet has become the mayor means of communication. It is filled with advertising, of course, but so far that is not nearly as intrusive or coercive as commercials.

Then there is the DVR (Digital Video Recorder), which allows users to record TV broadcasts for later (or immediate) playback. During playback users can fast-forward through commercials, and some technologies allow users to remove commercials entirely.

Three puzzling questions remain.

Why do people watch infomercials?
As the ugly name implies they are like commercials, but longer - usually 30 minutes long. In general you will find a pitch man or woman, a demonstration of the product or service, and many testimonials. I first encountered an infomercial about 15 years ago. After a long flight from the west to the east coast I had checked late into my motel and wanted to catch the news. Instead I found an infomercial and was so fascinated by its absurdity that I watched it to the end. Since then infomercials have become much more ubiquitous and have taken over more and more broadcast time. On a recent Sunday morning I noticed the same infomercial being shown simultaneously by all three major networks.

As opposed to commercials, where people are ambushed and entrapped, watching an infomercial is entirely voluntary. And people not only watch infomercials, they also buy enough of the stuff being peddled to pay for the broadcast time and the production cost of the infomercial. But why do people do this. Infomercials are just as obnoxious as commercials and, if anything, more boring. It really puts into doubt my thesis that commercials are universally disliked.

Why is there no advertising in books?
Newspapers and magazines contain large amounts of advertisements, but books at most a couple of pages at the end advertising other books. I do not know why books have escaped the tsunami of advertising. As an avid reader I would be confronted with an existential problem if books contained an ad on every second or third page. I can live without TV and radio, I cannot live without books.

However, the future is mortgaged. Amazon has patented technology to insert commercials into its Kindle e-book reader. A good thing I have not bought one yet.

Are commercials civilized?
Can a society be considered civilized that permits such blight on its major communications media and subjects its citizens to so much involuntary servitude?