30 Seconds in to the future

From the Journal Now (Winston-Salem Journal)

 

In 1987, the science-fiction satire Max Headroom depicted a media-obsessed future in which television commercials were reduced to one-second bites.

Welcome to the world of tomorrow. During Sunday's Super Bowl, Miller High Life will show a series of one-second commercials. But let's hope they don't have the same effect as the "blipverts" on Max Headroom, which over-stimulated sedentary viewers and caused them to explode.

Since Budweiser is the official beer sponsor of the Super Bowl, MillerCoors had to go to individual NBC affiliates to buy airtime. Hank Price at WXII confirmed that the ads would air here, and that MillerCoors had bought four seconds of airtime. He said that the station does not discuss the rates it charges advertisers, so we don't know if they paid 4/30th the going rate or more.

 

OK, so I do not have my jetpack that I was told I would have when I was a kid (40 years ago), but stuff from 20 years ago is now coming true....  this is weird.  Here is hoping that those watching will not explode!

Does anyone watch commercials and not see something bad anymore?

GM sticking with robot suicide ad criticized by group - Feb. 8, 2007:

"A suicide prevention group is calling on General Motors to pull an ad which shows an assembly line robot throwing itself off a bridge after making a mistake, but the automaker is sticking with the spot.

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention issued a statement saying that the ad sends dangerous and insensitive messages, and it asked members of the public to write to the automaker and ask that the ad be pulled.

I predict, if this trend continues, that in the near future everyone will be offended by something in an ad and advertising will stop all together. First the snickers ad and now this. We are in a politically correct world gone mad.

PC v. MAC

This is the way the PC/MAC commercials should really be:



Sorry all you Mac folks who may be reading this.... if you can dish it out you have to take it as well.

What was she watching??

Super Bowl Ads of Cartoonish Violence, Perhaps Reflecting Toll of War - New York Times:

"No commercial that appeared last night during Super Bowl XLI directly addressed Iraq, unlike a patriotic spot for Budweiser beer that ran during the game two years ago. But the ongoing war seemed to linger just below the surface of many of this year’s commercials."

I am not sure if I was watching the same game that this watcher was. Seems like some people will drag the war into anything. It is articles like this that mix things that do not belong together that really need to be stopped by the press if they want to maintain their objectivity.