Television Commercials

 I have been thinking about renewing my subscription to Netflix as there are several shows on there that I enjoy watching that I cannot see anywhere else like Stranger Things and Sweet Magnolias.  When I went to look up the prices they had three different plans:  Standard with ads, Standard, and Premium.  The last two cost way more than the standard with ads. So to me, that is a no brainer.  I grew up in the 70's and 80's.  Commercials were a part of the television watching experience.  Many times, the ads were much better than the actual program.  In this world of pause and restart, most people have no idea what it is like to know that you have approximately 2 minutes during the commercial break to get done whatever you need to.  And that commercial break is not going to stop for you for any reason.  

Commercials from years ago had so much thought put into them.  They reached millions of viewers to sell their products.  Who can forget "Where's the beef?"  That became an instant classic.  Of the Hallmark commercials that were only shown during the Hallmark specials.  Back in the day, Hallmark put out 2 to 3 movies per year.  Good movies and the commercial breaks were filled with their ads.  Not so much today now that they have their own channel with movies containing the same basic plot stream 24 hours a day. And the previews for upcoming episodes of your favorite shows....you don't see that today in commercials. 

I miss good commercials.  I do believe that there are some out these days that would have exploded in the 80's.  The ads for Progressive insurance featuring the character Flo are very clever and I enjoy those. The Bounty paper towel commercials are still going strong.  The Limu Emu & Doug commercials are pretty funny at times.  These are memorable to me like the old days.  Most commercials aren't anymore.  And that is sad but that is the world I live in.  Many streaming services offer upgrades to get rid of ads.  That is why I always choose the free version. Besides, these ads are someone's livelihood, and I feel like should take the time to watch them. So, when I go to renew Netflix, I'll be doing the standard with ads.  They don't scare me off.  A few minutes of my life taken up by advertisements is not much compared to saving money these days!