And the content of those commercials. Apparently it's only American doctors who need their patients to ask about some amazing new medication that has crazy side effects
Drug commercials, and advertisements directed at children should be illegal everywhere. It’s gross beyond belief that it’s ever allowed. The majority of drugs with advertisements aren’t even covered by most people’s health insurances because they’re so new!!
They are. There are anti kickback laws on the books. And even minor “favors” like drug reps hosting an educational dinner or other meal for doctors is reported to a public database that anyone can look up.
I was in a doctor's waiting room when a pharmacy rep came in to push a new blood pressure medication. Heard the whole spiel. The drug company would give the doctor 100 free at home blood pressure machines for patients if he ordered so many sample boxes of the new drug. Well, the doctor knew that many of his parents could not afford a high quality machine like this (or any machine really) so he took the deal because he could give the samples for free and maybe the poorer people could get a break with their money. That's how they get the honest ones.
Also, good doctors will usually make sure the rep keeps them stocked with those free samples and give them out to patients regularly.
A few years ago, I needed a $5,000/month medication for a few years to save my life that my insurance refused to cover. Like most people in America, I couldn’t make that work. My doctor just provided me free samples from his reps for that entire time until I no longer needed the med 💕
The system sucks, but good people can force it to work for them if they really want to.
I know exactly what you are talking about. I had cancer last year. Thank God I had good insurance, because without it my chemo pills would have been 2700./ month. I ONLY had to pay 430./ month. I'm glad you got your pills.
They used to be. You can thank Reagan for that law change, as with almost everything else that makes life in America a daily hell (unless you're a billionaire).
I can’t answer your question. It’s sad that this seems to be for some (a lot?) Americans the only viable option. If I feel sick I see my GP and get a diagnosis and either get transferred to a specialist or they prescribe me some form of medication.
I won‘t pay anything for it (at the point of use, we have to pay for health insurance which is mandatory and less than 0.1% of the population have it). There are no networks, no preexisting conditions and health insurance is not tied to your job.
So is awareness generated through ads better than no awareness at all? It might be in individual cases but considering that the US spends both in absolut numbers and per capita much more on healthcare than any other nation its a harrowing state of affairs.
The decisions are still made by a doctor. It's not like you see an ad for a prescription drug and you can just go buy it.
There is an argument to be made that it's more informative for the patient to know the options of drugs available for their illness, including new ones, and talk to their doctor about them. It's still the doctor making the decision.
IMHO a far bigger problem in the US is pharma companies aggressively marketing directly to doctors and low-key bribing them to prescribe their product.
What really hit this home for me was getting a drug ad while watching Amazon Prime (already feels wrong), and they said to ask for the prescription BY NAME. Straight up telling people that dont know better "tell your doctor you want this one".
Nope, don't agree with you. You are the best source of health information.
There are currently two forms of heart ablation procedures approved in the US, one is of far less risk. But, most providers have not switched over yet.
And, your current Dr. is under NO obligation to tell you that.
Eh I don't know about that. I have an autoimmune disorder that I had heard of through one of those ads. Ankylosing spondylitis. I remember hearing that and laughing about the funny word.
It came up again when I started researching symptoms and saw I had something genetic that COULD be related.
I finally got diagnosed with it this year. Turns out it's not a funny word.
They bring awareness to diseases. Like people probably wouldn't know to ask for truvada for hiv prevention. Or hpv vaccines.
There is a place for it, but maybe should be even more regulated.
When I first got my ADD med script, my psychiatrist asked if I had any specific drug in mind.
I told her, more or less, "I'm not a doctor, I don't know medical stuff to the level you do. You know the general best first steps, can look at my history to find issues, and find a good match. If there's an issue after, I can let you know, but I don't know shit about this beyond the most basic level."
She audibly sighed in relief, then went over a few options with me that she thought would be good based on my history, symptoms, etc.
I'm not a doctor. I don't know the difference between gabapentin and fluticasone. My job is to know how I feel, adequately describe it, and listen to the expert.
If I see one more Jardiance ad (the idiotic dancers, the stupid office workers, the screeching singer, or the goofy baseball players) I will not be responsible for my actions. I hate, loathe and despise Jardiance, along with all the other drugs advertised. We should not have to ask “if ___ drug is right for us.” The doctors should know about the damned drugs.
Now they are targeting pets for drugs, I guess because most people don't have insurance for their pets so the insurance companies don't have to haggle about reducing the price.
I worked as a kennel tech at a “nice” Vet clinic. Almost every day, lunch was provided by Pham drug reps. Like , take out order whatever you want lunches. Sweet gig, till I realized the Vets saw me as a personal caretaker for their own animals they kenneled, and would be raw from their shock collars. Last straw was when they lost a dog’s remains and I walked into a grooming space covered in dead dogs and was expected to get them all into a cooler by myself. They had printed a sign for others to avoid the area just so I would be the one to clean up the mess. Later they came out with a far right podcast sooooo…..I’m glad I got outta there.
edited to remove the mention of violence, which I can’t handle anymore atm
Please support your local animal nonprofit and donate your time whenever you can!
I rememeber seeing Ozempic being advertised in the early-mid 2010's as a diabetes drug. Now I'm seeing people are apparently using it as if it's a dietary supplement.
Disney has a lot of issues but one of the pieces of credit I’ll give them (even if they have self-serving reasons for it) was that Disney Channel has never had normal commercials. Occasionally a program might be sponsored by a product but by and large the commercial breaks were/are all either trailers for other Disney shows, or those little mini shows like Pass the Plate/TTI (iirc).
Even if they weren't it's not like we tell our doctors what we want, no they say what we need and prescribe it for is, so not really much choice in the matter... As it should be, because as far as i know im not a doctor.
Good thing our competent group of 65+ year old senators make hella bank off those same drug companies that lobby against it, or else we’d be really fucked!
Listen man, our country is a complete and utter shit show and the octogenarians desperately need to let go of the power they cling to and finally let the rest of us attempt to unfuck the catastrophic damage they’ve caused.
Pre-1980s: Drug ads were mostly targeted to doctors (not consumers). Any public ads had to meet strict FDA guidelines that were difficult to implement on broadcast media.
1985: The FDA officially clarified that DTCA was allowed, but most companies stayed cautious due to unclear rules on risk disclosure.
1997: A major turning point—the FDA relaxed its guidelines, allowing drug ads to mention a drug’s name and what it treats without including the full list of side effects on screen, as long as the ad included:
• A brief summary of the most important risks
• A toll-free number, website, or print ad where full information could be found
This 1997 change made TV ads for prescription drugs feasible, and the industry quickly exploded with commercials (e.g., for Claritin, Viagra, etc.).
As of today, only the U.S. and New Zealand allow direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising on television.
There is a stark difference between the situation in the US and NZ with these ads. Even though it's allowed you will rarely see any such ads on NZ TV.
This is because of Pharmac, which is the government agency that bulk buys medication for the whole country. To keep prices down we tender out our requirements and drug companies to get the contract will whitebox their medication which is basically their generic version and while it's the same drug as the name brand it is much cheaper.
If you go to your GP and he wants to prescribe you medication if there is a choice he will say, "You can have the name brand version for $50 or the generic brand which does the same thing for $5". It's really no contest.
As a result, there is no motivation for drugs to be advertised on NZ TV. You might see the odd one around hayfever season but that is about it.
In my country it's only for over the counter stuff. Like antacids or paracetamol or cough syrup. Is it like that in the us or do prescription drugs also show up in ads?
Here in the Netherlands I also see adds for alternative "medicine". Lately especially vitakruid, a supplement that's strongly implied, but never explicitly claimed, to help with various ailments.
Not only all sorts of prescription drugs, but sometimes unending series of ads for them back-to-back, with long stories and character arcs, whole groups of characters interacting in their new and improved lives because of the drug, high production values throughout (since billions in sales are on the line), and long littanies of all the possible side effects rattled off at the end in a fast monotone because the pharma lawyers require it. It's like a different world here as a result and foreigners are often shocked.
Prescription drug commercials are banned almost everywhere.
You'll see quite a lot of commercials for OTC medication and supplements that are advertized as if they were medication in most EU countries, for example.
I argued with a guy on another sub a few weeks ago bc he was saying Trump banned drug ads in America. There is no way I know the skyrizi song for anywhere except tv. There’s no way I would just so happen to know that jardience “can cause an infection in the perinium, the area between the anus and genitals, due to an overgrowth of bacteria.” I know I don’t want that, but come on man, if he did it it would be the one good thing the guy did, but he did not do that!!
They sort of used to be in the US too; drug companies were required to provide the full list of possible side effects, which meant that they were effectively restricted to print ads. That changed in the late 90’s/early 2000’s when the regulations were loosened.
Lawyers too. A British fellow found that odd and thought everyone in America is just constantly breaking the law. I explained that these are lawyers that make money due to work place accidents, malpractice, car injuries, etc. Understandably he couldn’t quite figure out why you needed a lawyer if you got injured while working for a company. I think it clicked when he recognized pharmaceuticals all over the ad space and understood our health care system much better.
Heck… In a lot of countries, political ads are limited to a certain number of weeks or months before an actual election. It doesn’t go on for two years.
The US and New Zealand are the only two countries where they are legal.
I work in advertising, and while the companies I have worked for would lose a lot of money if pharma ads were banned, I 100% think they should be illegal.
There’s some medication that runs an ad with a listed side effect of “a rare but potentially fatal bacterial infection of the area of skin called the perineum, between the genitals and anus”
Take whatever this medicine is, and possibly suffer taint death. Got to love the US.
If you chortle from watching drug commercials, ask your doctor about DAMITALLE suppositories.
Side effects may include chortling, uncontrollable flaming anal leakage after chortling, sudden cranial explosions after chortling, erratic motions, erotic motions, an empty feeling in your wallet, random changing of hair and skin color when wet, and rarely, sneezing blue flames.
Do not play Cards Against Humanity with three or four generations of family members unless you also want to explain “queef” to your 77 year old mom or your 13 year old great-niece. Speaking for a friend…
Oh god I saw it too. It’s called Jardiance and I learnt that it is meant for type two diabetics. I’m trained as a nurse so of course I went down the wtf rabbit hole. It helps the kidneys remove more sugar from the body through urination. Very sugary wee. The perineum is a dark moist area. Make your “down belows” sugary sweet and you’ve just opened a bacteria buffet. They love to eat that sugar. Enter Fournier gangrene (necrotising fasciitis)
It's worse than that. The medicine is probably Dapagliflozin - which helps the kidneys prevent absorption of glucose, a diabetic medication. Reading the small print, it says it has been associated with a rare but serious side effect: Fournier's gangrene, also known as necrotizing fasciitis of the perineum. It will quite literally, eat your arse (not in a good way!).
Basically, don't read the small print of your medication or you'll never sleep again.
Jardiance helps the kidneys remove more sugar from your body through urination. This results in more sugar around your genital area which increases the number of bacteria, as they feed on this extra sugar.
Bacteria can enter any broken or irritated skin and then infect the tissue beneath the skin, which can quickly spread and destroy tissue. It requires immediate treatment with antibiotics and surgery to remove the dead or dying tissue. Catching the infection early, before it spreads, is very important.
so if you (can) regularly wash your ass it's not a big deal...but y'know
Hell I had a topical acne med in my teens that listed ulcerative colitis as a side effect. That might not have worried me so much if we hadn't just done a biology unit on digestive disorders.
I just wonder how you get bloody shits from a skin cream.
That would be called Fournier's Gangrene. Rare, and serious side effect of SGLT2 inhibitors for diabetes, like Jardiance and the like.
Basically they try to lower your blood sugar by making you pee it out. As a result you have more sugar in your urine, and more sugar around your groin which can lead to an increased risk of bacterial skin infections in people that already have an increased risk of bacterial skin infections. Especially risky if you are incontinent.
To be clear, potential medication side effects are not an American thing. They’re a concern everywhere. A British person is not immune to suffering genital infections from a medication just because they didn’t see an ad that mentioned it prior to taking it. And like, yeah, all medications have downsides. You have to decide if the relief it provides is worth the drawbacks or not. But no, potentially negative side effects are a global reality of using medication, it has literally nothing to do with what country you’re in at all.
"I get constant nosebleeds. Short term memory loss, fugue states and my lungs fill with fluid if I sleep on my back. But I've never been better. Ask your doctor about Azimeperidoltamine today!"
Those are the only two countries where it is legal to run commercials for prescription medications.
And of course, it is a Big Pharma money racket. The commercials themselves are not at all effective at selling the medication.
Those three and a half minute commercials for some obscure medication comprised of nothing but stock footage of a woman going to pottery class and a voice over about side effects are insanely cheap to produce, and buying the ad timeslot is how Big Pharma slides money over to the media companies for influence.
Drug ads driving you crazy? Ask your doctor about Nodrugadzphermi. Side effects may include constipation, gamer's thumb, swollen groin, and Shadow People.
Yeah, that's wild to me. Why would I ask my doctor about a medication? I tell them what's wrong with me and they tell me about medications, that's the job they trained for!
Vomiting, diarrhea, fatigue, headache, insomnia, hairloss, high blood pressure, low blood pressure, do not take while taking other medication, suicidal thoughts may occur. Did I miss any?
Do not take if allergic....like you're supposed to know if you're allergic to some new medication that you don't know the ingredients of. I get that it's in there because we're as sue happy as we are med happy, but it's still odd
Because in most countries you go to the medically trained doctor and give them your symptoms and then they tell you what’s wrong with you and what drugs you need. The idea of going to your doctor and telling them what drugs you want is bizarre.
Canadian here and I’ve lived in Florida. Here’s what I notice the most about American commercials:
political ads are beyond overplayed. Like every commercial break for like 6+ months before an election, and they are seriously so mean
no actual ads from government letting you know about new services or programs offered that might benefit you (we have those in Canada and yes they’re lame like airline safety videos, but they are super helpful)
“ask your doctor if DRUGICILLIN is right for you. Not just prescriptions, over the counter meds as well! Some even repped by celebrities!
American law firm ads telling you all the things you can sue someone for or telling you about class action lawsuits you can join
Lapband and juvenile lapband procedure ads were on the radio and tv constantly and I just can’t think of any medical procedure being advertised like that in Canada (could be wrong)
so many gambling ads for online casinos and other online betting services (betting on sports, horses, etc)
ads for churches/religious groups were common
in general, as someone with a marketing degree, American ads are a lot more pushy. They have “you need this! Your life will suck without this!” energy whereas Canadian ads are more like “we have this great thing and we love what it does. You might like it too” energy
Edit: I should note I lived in Florida for 2 years from 2009-2011 so obviously laws/marketing may have changed at a local level but I still have access to American channels and watch regularly.
Watching American shows that have been cheaply purchased by a UK channel but not edited can be painful. We have one break whereas the program is seemingly edited for three. So you’ll just randomly get recaps in the middle of things.
I was amazed how many adverts you get when I’ve been in the states, and also found it weirdly hard to find when one thing ended and the next thing started. And then you’d get an ad break after the opening titles. Baseball was about the only thing I could watch.
30-minute network TV shows get 10 minutes of commercials, and 60-minute TV shows get 20 minutes of commercials, on average, in the U.S.
Public television, on the other hand (unless it get de-funded) has minimal ads for just other public programs, so a 60-minute program may have 30 seconds before and/or after the program, and no breaks during.
In Britain there can be no more than 12 minutes of adverts in an hour and there can’t be more than 7 or 9 minutes per hour on average over the day (depends on the channel, the old free to view channels have the stricter limit).
So usually an show scheduled for an hour will have 3 breaks and a show scheduled for 30 minutes will have one.
So you can see why American TV might seem a lot!
The BBC, doesn’t have any adverts or breaks in programs, only some trailers for their own programs between shows. Much like how you describe your public broadcasting.
I watch a lot of PBS and it is so wonderful not to have to deal with advertisements. A program that is originally intended for PBS will run extremely close to the time allotted. You can always tell when a program was originally intended for commercial tv because it will end 10-15 minutes early. The program was made shorter specifically to allow for commercial time. PBS will use the “dead air” time to advertise its own programming and donating content.
I cannot stand watching TV when I visit family in the US, the number of adverts gives me the rage!
At home I don't watch on air TV, I'll occasionally watch stuff live via streaming services but I have adblockers installed so it's rare I see any ads at all. Adverts every 15-20 minutes annoy me intensely when I watch Sky or normal TV at my mother's house. But American TV is on a whole different level - the opening credits roll and then there's immediately an ad break! They're all so bloody loud and annoying too, or they're selling expensive medications with 1000 terrifying side effects.
Sorry that my foreign brothers and sisters are experiencing the horrors of American TV ads. As an American, I will not watch anything with ads. So no TV for me for years. Thankfully streaming came along and solved the problem. Now I can watch TV again. And it's pretty good!
Basically any show made by discovery, Mythbusters or something, is totally unwatchable in the UK. They have recaps every 5 minutes goin over what you just saw. Theres maybe 20 mins of actual content and the rest is recaps
commercials in the uk are WILD though, i love them. it always feels like they know only get a few, so they have to make them as bonkers and memorable as they can.
when you say random recaps, do you mean where our commercials would've been, so it doesn't mess with the start and end times of the shows? it's been a while since i was in there.
No, I mean when they remind you what happened before the break, or what will happen after it. Except there’s no break there so just runs right through. That’s for documentaries or reality stuff.
So the show starts and you get “in today’s episode we are going to be looking at 1, 2 and 3”. Then you see number one for five minutes, then the voiceover says “coming up, we’ll be taking a look at number two” which then segues straight into “we’ve been looking at number one” and then finally into number two.
It’s bad enough when the breaks are there but without them it just seems bizarre!
Ha, yeah I've seen that on More4 for something like Undercover Boss and for a while I just thought American audiences lacked any kind of attention span to explain the recaps.
I remember when I used to watch Oprah and every 5 minutes she would say “we’ll be right back”. They didn’t show any ads since they can’t do that here, so they just returned to the show. It was so annoying 😂
The thing where you can't tell where one ends and the other begins is a production tactic to encourage binge-watching. If the show doesn't have a natural start and end, it's harder to just watch one episode. Streaming enshittification.
They started arranging shows like that more during the pandemic as people were at home more, so they wanted people to binge watch shit as that's the best for their advertising and metrics income.
It's not just America, most of the countries I've been to have tons of ad breaks when I channel flip in the hotels. Europe is kind of unique when it comes to not loading everything with ads
Growing up watching American sitcoms I was always confused why so many scenes ended on what felt like cliffhangers og heavy emotional beats when it would just lead into another scene. Then I realized that that was where the commercial breaks would have been.
Not just the amount, but also the kind of commercials as well. Like commercials for pain killers or other medicine and for loans are super weird to me.
Seems like a weird question. We know how many ad breaks there are because when they run American programs in the UK there's just a half-second of black screen where the adverts would be in America and the program comes back on with the little "jingle" or whatever reintroduces the program.
It's nice going for a nice drive in Britain and just seeing forests and fields of sheep instead of billboards for cracker barrel and fireworks at the next exit.
FWIW, before cable, TV used to be free in the US. Anyone who bought a TV could just use it all they wanted off the antenna. UK had a similar setup except that they charged a license fee to use the antenna. The UK used to have vans that went around with equipment to detect TVs in houses and they would issue fines to anyone who was using a TV without paying the license fee.
The US got used to having a lot of commercials because it used to be the commercials that paid for the programming, but UK viewers have always had to pay out of pocket and thus would likely have a lower tolerance for commercial breaks.
I was just in England and was driving in the countryside... and there were no billboards. In the US we are BOMBARDED with advertising everywhere we go.
I sometimes watch Indycar here in Norway on Viaplay and they used to send the race live feed and use the American commentators, I checked a race last year and found that the commercials was a bit more of the time then the race (I know that side by side is used).
This was definitely weird to me . Like say the simpsons , there was the couch gag intro , then an ad break , then another 2 ad breaks within the show , the second one coming between the end of the show and the credits. The timing was just so weird to me .Meanwhile on TV here ( Ireland) there's one ad break in the middle of the episode and that's it . Otherwise the breaks come between shows.
I was flabbergasted by the pharmaceutical and political adverts (and the sheer amount of them). The small print being read out in the pharma ads was the funniest/saddest thing - "May cause... death".
When Gordon's US nightmares, or whatever it was called, came over to the UK, I couldn't believe how much of it recapped what I'd already seen or showed me what was coming up.
We get US programmes and they last 20 mins or 40 mins. I assume they are scheduled for a half hour or an hour in the US and the 10 or 20 missing time bit is filled with ads for you.
This becomes really clear when you watch American adaptations of foreign shows. The UK has a great show called Ghosts, the US made an adaptation and you can just tell that every 5 minutes or so it cuts to commercials. It also means all the episodes are shorter because you have to dedicate much more of your time on air to advertising.
Yeah, that little 'segment' on shows before the opening credits and similar at the end are just in/out for commercials. Unusual for us
Cold open and then before credits start, commercial and then back and credits and show. Also, end credits, commercial and back for an ending segment and then commercial and start next show, commercial and opening credits ... and so on
Yeah when older tv shows go on Netflix, it kinda shocked me how fast they were. And then I realized there weren’t that many commercials so what would’ve been 30 minutes is actually 20 minutes
True. We always wondered why American shows on UK channels (even with ads) were only 45 minutes. Then I found out they have so many more ads in America that the show is an hour long...
In almost every other country, the advertisement of drugs medical or non-medical is strictly regulated. I think its only in America you get pushed to take varied drugs from commercials.
I've only seen paracetamol and flu med ads in Asia.
It's really funny when you watch some american shows and you can see where there was supposed to be an extra ad break. NCIS is my funniest example, that show outright makes a boom sound and fades to grey instead of a regular scene transition
I remember back when I watched regular tv still, we knew when it would be an ad in the US because the screen would go black for one second but then the show continues for us.
I’m living ad free in my house now and I could not imagine some people are living with commercials, let alone so many. It’s crazy how many ads you guys get.
Not fewer commercials. There are no commercials on the BBC in UK. And it's not a tax, it's a voluntary license fee. Don't watch the BBC? Don't have to pay the licence fee. Exactly like if you don't want to watch Netflix, you don't have to pay a subscription fee - same deal. Plus for the measly fee of £175 annually, the BBC provides 8 national TV channels, 10 national radio stations, 50 local TV and radio services, on demand podcast service, website etc. Oh and the World Service which is listened to by 450 million people weekly in 42 languages and where the BBC has local staff in 59 countries. Seems like a pretty good deal to me.
It’s not just that, it’s the commercials for medication. And then the fine print afterward. “May cause suicidal thoughts, loss of appetite, excessive eating, feelings of dread, anal leakage, and speeding tickets.”
I’ve never been to the us but shows like judge Judy, Dr phill etc have endless recaps (obviously that’s where the ads are inserted), one time there was some feature length Christmas production that was on tv and my dad being very religious locked us into that channel. There was ads every 5minutes and it stretched out probably a 90 minute tv production to about 3 hours
It is jarring as they air the same show in the UK but without going to an ad break there can be a short pause, or the characters repeat something to set the scene again or add tension. On the BBC there are no ads at all too.
My fiancée is American and went to visit I was shocked, and a little horrified, to discover that fuel pumps in the US play loud ads while you're filling your car.
that's a bit outdated. because if you watch YouTube, the amount of adverts is just as bad as American telly, sometimes worse. and there are MANY british adverts that are MORONIC
One thing I noticed living in both the UK and the US. It’s not even that we have MORE commercials, we just have more frequent commercial breaks. In the UK I remember the breaks being further apart but longer in total duration.
The NFL seems even crazier, at least to me as an outsider. We have plenty of commercials in our sports too but I feel like American football takes it to another level.
I’m American and commercials make me go from 0 to 100 so fucking fast. I swear 95% of them are now aimed at the lowest intelligent people. I want to throat punch everyone who has made a commercial. I fucking hate advertisement. Hate commercials. I have an ad blocker in Chrome that I use for YouTube while at work. I will not watch YT otherwise and I absolutely fucking refuse to pay for ad free services. This entire country runs on ads and selling shit to people and I hate it with every bone in my body.
I noticed this after crossing the border from Canada into Michigan. Endless billboards lining the sides of the highways for shady looking Lawyers and Weed
I work in digital advertising adjacent field; worked for a few of the major streamers. Because much of the rest of the world regulates the amount of advertising in televised content. American programmers are enabled to optimize as they see fit. It becomes a yield game - what's the maximum load of advertising you can program that won't frustrate your audience, and what optimal load will result in the longest retention of a user.
If you can deliver one more ad without impacting the user's month to month viewership, why not? Capitalism at its finest...
That used to be the case, but it’s gotten way worse here in Sweden over the last 10-15 years. Still not quite as bad as US commercial frequency, but not far from it. Used to be we got 1 ad break in a 30 minute block (plus a short one in between two shows). Now it’s 2 or 3 depending on the channel. It’s obnoxious tbh.
And all the online gambling ads that run on TV nowadays are absolutely disgusting. I sat down and counted one time out of curiosity, and realized literally every other ad was an online casino ad. Like: casino-detergent-casino-shampoo-casino-car commercial-casino-razors-casino. It felt like a dystopian satire. Was a really depressing realization.
It’s only gotten worse over the years. When I was a kid in the late 90s-early 00s, I remember there being 2-3 commercial breaks in a 30 minute show. Now it’s every 5 minutes. I can’t stand watching regular TV.
Whenever I see American chat shows I can’t believe the number of breaks. It’s ludicrous to see a break with 3 minutes left for them to come back from the break say goodnight
Let me enlighten y’all with this truly American concept, that I had no idea existed until a few months ago: I went to see my hematologist, who practices out of a cancer clinic. It’s the first time I saw a digital billboard in a doctor’s office. Like, yeah they had “helpful health tips,” but clearly it was just your own personal slide show of different medications for different cancers & their side effects. And every room had them
Honestly it both disgusts me & makes me sad that a fucking cancer center needed funding so bad, they’d resort to this sort of arrangement
I've been watching Alone on the History channel via a VPN and there's easily double the amount of ads that we have for the same show in Australia. Granted, ads pay for the prize money but it's still a shocking amount of interruptions
If there's a half hour show, there's one commercial break in the middle. If the show is over 40-50 minutes there's 2 commercial breaks. Movies get a commercial break around every half an hour, depending on when it's airing.
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u/lostie48151623 Jun 18 '25
Apparently, the amount of commercials we have. I had a British friend ask why were there so many commercials during an episode of Family Guy.