by Thomas Klugh

Created on: May 13, 2010

I agree...

Let me explain... I'm sitting on my couch, hoping to engage myself in my favorite evening activity of being a couch-potato, trying to enjoy watching a favorite TV show, when a pop-up ad appears in the foreground at the bottom of the screen telling me about the show coming on next, or later that evening, or another evening - complete with the characters who will be appearing.

Pop-up ads are not only annoying, they're intrusive.  I hate them.

What is wrong with the TV show execs that think this is okay?  Are they so obsessed with making a profit that they don't care about the effects of their greed?  At the very least, there should be an option built in to every TV where we can choose to see the pop-up ad or not.  Forced ads are like the book "1984" at the very least.  Pop-up ads are a violation of the sanctity of one's domicile.  What will be next, preventing us from changing the channel when an ad appears?  Execs at the major TV stations have to wake up and see what's really going on.

Marshall McLuhan wrote "Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man" in 1964.  His theme was that "the medium is the message".  In brief, he was saying the messages we encounter from all the the advertising weren't the real issue, but the medium itself was the real message.  It's the very medium itself that's trying to tell us something about ourselves.  He wrote the specific content might have little effect on society. For example, it does not matter if television broadcasts this show or that show - the effect of television on society would be identical.  It's not the content, but the medium itself.  Such is the case with pop-up ads.

There is something you can do.  First of all, stop complaining and act.  Go from your couch to your computer and contact the FCC at: http://www.fcc.gov/contacts.html and send them a deluge of emails.  Tell them, as was said in "Network" (1976), "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!"  Tell them you won't tolerate forced advertising.  Forced ads didn't work on New York City buses.  They were stopped when enough people complained.  Contact the FCC today.

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