Why I like those ads that make me
mad by forcing me to sit through them before I can watch the kittens
| EXCEPT FOR conversations opening with the likes of “That one Doritos commercial is sooo funny …”, it is fashionable to dislike advertising. Especially when you have to sit through an eternity-long 30 seconds you have already sat through a dozen times when all you wanted to do was watch some kittens intimidating some big dogs. Even though I write advertising, I empathize. I just want to get to the kittens, too. But there are three reasons that I appreciate those commercials: | Click image to play |
1. Ads pay for the kittens videos. If they didn’t, I’d have to pay for them per view.* But let’s be honest. I wouldn’t, and neither would you. No more ads would pretty much mean no more kitten videos. And that, my friends, would be a cultural travesty.
2. I might actually be interested in the ad. Sometimes an ad informs me of a product that solves a need or want. Sometimes an ad simply entertains me. I don’t and most likely never will own an Audi, but I enjoy watching the 2013 Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto commercial (above, right). And sometimes an ad will show scenes from a movie I’m dying to see and let me know its release date. Don’t tell me you have’t gobbled up trailers for the new Star Wars movie. Or for the latest video game.
3. The commercials warn me when I have the sound turned off. I want to hear as well as see those kittens. When a commercial comes on sotto or sans vocce, it lets me know that I have 30 seconds to turn on the sound so I won’t miss a millisecond of kitten audio.
2. I might actually be interested in the ad. Sometimes an ad informs me of a product that solves a need or want. Sometimes an ad simply entertains me. I don’t and most likely never will own an Audi, but I enjoy watching the 2013 Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto commercial (above, right). And sometimes an ad will show scenes from a movie I’m dying to see and let me know its release date. Don’t tell me you have’t gobbled up trailers for the new Star Wars movie. Or for the latest video game.
3. The commercials warn me when I have the sound turned off. I want to hear as well as see those kittens. When a commercial comes on sotto or sans vocce, it lets me know that I have 30 seconds to turn on the sound so I won’t miss a millisecond of kitten audio.
—Steve Cuno
* You could argue that we pay for the videos indirectly when we buy the advertised product. That’s a whole nother topic. Suffice it to say that it ain’t that simple.
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