Summer is not the best time for television. How do I know this? Well, Natalie and I have started watching, following, and anxiously anticipating every new episode of Master Chef. We cling to it like a shipwrecked sailor on a piece of drift wood. And actually (and this could be the lack of other programming/any other sport but baseball speaking) it's not half bad. I'd recap each episode if I was any good at maintaining a blog. But that's not what this post is about.
We still don't have a TV, and watch this, the most prestigious of all reality TV amateur cooking shows, on the internet. I'm sure many of you watch shows on sites like Hulu, Fancast, etc. And maybe you've also noticed the same thing that is starting to quite literally drive me half-way crazy during each of the advertisements you're forced to watch during the show.
It's in the upper right hand corner of the screen: A quick question and some buttons. "Is this ad relevant to you?" then "Yes" or "No."
What's even more striking about my dilemma regarding this question is how it started out in completely the opposite way. Let me explain.
You see, I first viewed the sponser placing this question as their ultimate blunder, resulting in their own demoralizing defeat. No! This ad is not relevant to me, thank you. I shall tell you as much and I will never have to put up with your attempts to get me to purchase your product. (Commercials have always been the whole drag associated with watching TV, am I right? I mean, that's why we all did the collective Macarena when Tivo was invented, yes?)
I still haven't been able to click that "No" button. Not once. I may never. It's driving me crazy. For example, an ad for a new Nissan sedan appears. I begin watching. Is this ad relevant to me? Well, in some ways I guess. I'm an adult with a drivers license. I depend on our car to get me to work everyday, to provide for our family. I certainly don't think I'll be driving our Hyundai Elantra for eternity. In several ways this ad is very relevant to me.
Or how about anti-aging cream? My first thought is no, not relevant. But don't I deal with the same internal struggles associated with getting older? Can I not relate, in any way, to the desire to retain youthfulness and distract myself from the fact that life (partly) is a process of constant decay?
Relevance relevance and so on.
And now, finding myself unable to view any ad as irrelevant, I begin questioning my entire (false?) perception of advertising in general. How can I be delighted to skip past things that are so seemingly relevant to me and my participation in the human experience? And simply saying, for instance, that since I don't want to buy a car at this very moment, this ad is not relevant comes across as very shortsighted. Oh sure, I could say "skip past this M&Ms commerical, I'm not hungry for candy right now," but does that mean I might never be in the mood for sweets generally/M&Ms specifically? Of course not. As a human being with discretionary income, which sometimes is spent on food, not infrequently of the junk variety, Mars Candy informing me of their new pretzel M&Ms is particularly relevant, let's say. And if I back out of watching M&Ms ads am I somehow diminishing those employees of Mars Candy, who's livelihood and ability (in some part) to engage in the sort of consumer-based human experiences I'm finding are relevant, depends on whether or not I go out, convinced by their ads, to purchase their candy? What a freaking mess.
It's gotten to the point where I've come to the conclusion (through a logic chain so dense and questionable that I don't dare repeat it here) that advertisers have concocted the perfect question--one that has single handedly captured my still very begrudging attention to their attempts to get my money. I'm certainly not happy about it. But at this point I'm cornered.
You win this round advertising.
