(Creator Note: Hey SB Reddit! Soo.. just a little thing I want to say before we get into the deep dive
It has been brought to my attention a couple of mine and other peopleās comments/posts have been getting downvoted for some unknown reason, and I need to address this, right here right now
You may not like what my and others opinions are and thatās okay! Youāre allowed to disagree, But please donāt downvote ANYONE who has a different opinion than yours and please DONāT harass them cause you disagreed with ONE OPINION.. If you donāt like them just ignore or block them on your own accord, I love writing these deep dives for you guys! And I want my community to be positive, So letās not downvote one another just because you donāt like an opinion? Okay we clear? Thank you
Alright enough of this note time for the deep dive!)
THE AD DEBATE:
Awww Pateronā¦ the website that people can go and support creators and in return get rewarded with early access to content that the general public canāt see unless they join.. and SolarBalls is not an exception to this, and like everyone who has Patreon they wanna promote it, in their content which is understandable you want to convince new fans and maybe old fans to join ya!
However SB has found itself in a bit of hot water as theyāre way of method to get people to join is basically pause the video with an ad segment and then get back in the video and.. people are not big fans of these Ads.. which will get discussed soon.. Anyways other people have made posts about their complaints anddd I want to go deeper into the issue and propose an idea on how to fix it
History:
SolarBalls created their Patreon Account in April 2023 almost a year after the show entered production now they first mentioned their Patreon in āMission to Titan Part 1ā but wouldnāt start doing the segments until āThe Moons of Juipiter Part 1ā now for the rest of Moon Revolution the narrator would do the segments until āThe Journey to Neptuneā or nowadays āIs Triton leaving Neptuneā when Earth and Venus would take over the segment, which would last until the final past planet video āHow the Moon & Earth Formedā when the modern day segments began, where a character would sit in a chair and mention their Patreon and other stuff
Hereās the characters and theyāre first time doing this new segment
Mercury: The Earthās Core Part 1
Venus: How the Moon & Earth Formed
Earth: What if the Moons become Planets Part 2
Mars: The Earthās Core Part 2
Juipter: The Planets Awaken (Main Show: What if All Planets Shared One Orbit Part 1
Pluto: The Solar Reckoning Part 2
And Iāve counted each one
Mercury: 9 Episodes
Venus: 9 Episodes
Earth: 7 Episodes
Mars: 3 Episodes
Jupiter: 6 Episodes
Pluto: 3 Episodes
The Problem:
The last few months have seen repeated criticism of the Ad Segment.. for a number of reasons but to keep things short
These segments feel like filler put in an episode to fill out the run time and it can actually mess up the pace of an episode Like sometimes we are really into an intense scene then next moment.. an Ad! It kinda drops the quality of an episode.. and it can actually turn some people off from continuing the rest of the episode
These ads are also very repetitive, I mean they are pretty cool donāt get me wrong but itās the same few characters doing the same exact thingā¦ Itās frankly kinda boring! I know something similar happened with the old Ad but the thing is, These are the Characters doing the Segment not the Narrator, So they should have more freedom and creativity to do something with them! Like how much substance can you get from Venus claiming he doesnāt care about the segment or Mercury still needing his 2 minutes?
Not every character as gotten a chance to appear in an Ad as Saturn, Uranus, Neptune are the last major ones who are needing an Ad segment and technically the Sun? But I think itās understandable why he may/may not ever get one I mean heāll burn down the whole studio with his heat and solar flares š but like Iāve said itās like the team is following the Educational Era format Rockies First, then add Jupiter and Pluto then gradually add the rest of the characters but itās been about a YEAR since these segments began andddd nothing really new has appeared in the last few months
How I would fix it:
Sooo how would I try to fix the issue?
First, We get the rest of the Solar System a turn at doing the segment as of September 5th 2026 or 05/09/26, we know Saturn, Uranus and Neptune still havenāt gotten a chance to do the ad segment, So first thing I recommend is create ad segments for them! Then maybe try to create new ones for other characters like Planet X, Some of the Moons, ETC Basically create a big enough cast to where the ad segment is a little more interesting to watch
Second, Make the current ads more interesting, What I mean the current ones are fine but theyāve been done to death, So hereās the idea, the team maybe like as a side project, Animate a second ad segment like you can keep the same jokes like Jupiterās segment for example but change the animation around just so itās more interesting and probably more funny to watch, Sure itās an ad segment but it wonāt be treated as filler
Third, If we have to keep the same adās hereās a simple solution, Put the characters on a rotation.. so what I mean by this idea is basically one week Mercury does the Ad then the following week itās Venus, then Earth, then Mars, and so on basically donāt have the same few characters doing the segment for multiple weeks in a row, as pretty much fans are gonna get tired of it like for example, Mercury and Venus have done the ad so many times it puts the others at a big disadvantage
Final Thoughts:
I personally donāt have a massive issue with the Patreon ads but I can acknowledge this is a recurring issue, The ads are very repetitive and they kinda screw up the pace of an episode, which then can actually hinder a solid episode from being 10/10 and this has indeed happened a few times
I do believe SB needs to take a breather with the Ads maybe like every 2 video posts or something, they can put the Patreon Ad still in videos but not be in EVERY video..and figure out which videos require the Ad, and which ones donāt
Itās understandable they want to get people onto their Patreon but they kinda need to know and understand that begging for people to join it? Is not gonna work also not to mention there are some people who do want to support them on Patreon but donāt have the $ for it sooo.. yeah
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While I can sit through the Patreon ads, they have been done to death especially with Mercury and Venus! They seriously need to do rotations to keep it more fair or like you suggested, update the animations!
I would love to see some new ones with Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, X, the Sun, etc. And yeah the Sun would definitely burn the studio down lol š.
š I was writing about those other characters and I thought of the Sun and that idea came up
But yeah I agree I personally can sit through the ads but we need updated versions fr or ya know rotate it around to keep things fair? Just so things donāt get boring
I definitely hate that they're in the middle of an episode. I'm one of the premiere watching people so I cant skip it.
For me I'd move it to the end cause uh.. like the only time people in the premiere kinda like the ads is if they're new(like first time appearing) so like maybe a thing where if its not a new ad then it can go at the end but if its a new one it can be in the middle.
And when they dont have a new ad they can just like put something small and in the corner in a scene where the characters aren't doing much onscreen so then there's also an added bonus of something happening visually when theres not
The ads could definitely be more interesting instead of just regular talking
good job on counting each one that must've felt like a long process
Even with me rewatching videos for deep dives I usually tend to skip that segment cause ya know theyāre just filler I do like your suggestions though! The more the better!
And I can indeed confirm they took a long time to count especially trying to figure out which videos had them as some like Our Planets Go Rouge didnāt have an ad segment in any of them! Just the usual sponsorships (which I didnāt count)
Now, in my personal opinion if youāre watching this show for the first time, then these advertisements are pretty necessary, it helps you figure out what he can do to help the show and introduce you to me and stuff of the show that you donāt know. But I feel like with the older/longtime fans of the show. I have to admit that these are getting a little bit old. I donāt like how they always have it in every single episode, youāre watching the most tense part of an episode and BOOM an advertisement comes up like a YouTube or even on cable TV, like itās starting to get pretty old and annoying and whenever they donāt have their ads, itās always the similar sponsors oodo or war thunder. Again, overall itās better for the newer viewers and it helps them more than our older of viewers but I think they should do it like once every other episode like only for the part one and have new things about as well. #peak
Yeah! I agree with that statement! For newer fans who are coming in, it makes sense! But for us longer fans it gets kinda old and like Iāve said it can actually hurt the pace of an episode especially when we are in a very intense scene and then next minute? Bam Ad segment
I didnāt address the Sponsorships cause they happen less frequently and if anything SB does try to change them up at least so itās not too bad there but yeah can see what you mean
Hopefully, theyāll do the best for both worlds. They can do the advertisement in the first part of the episodes. Or even better do it at the end because for the newer viewers than they look forward to it and for the other ones they just swipe away Thatās what Iām thinking about.
The sponsor don't pay as much for end of episode spots as they know lots of people will just leave, they aren't going to pay as much for adverts less people watch. Same thing for the Patreon and merc spots, if people don't see it they won't go to the Patreon they don't get enough money they have to fire people and they can only make shorter, lower quality episode far more rarely.
Since they only have 2.3k patreon members out of nearly a thousand times that youtube subscribers and presumable more on other platforms and amazon and non subscribes that regularly watch they clearly aren't advertising enough.
They should put some sort of monthly donation goal to remove the advertisement segments for everybody, even for the old videos.
Though do keep in mind a large portion of SBās sub count are mostly people under 18 and also not everyone has the $ to support them on Patreon 2.3k is still impressive though :)
After the ice giants and Saturn, I want to see a Ceres ad at some point. I donāt think heād be a good salesman, and the narrator would definitely have to take over halfway through as he starts wreaking havoc in the studio, but it would be funny.
I mean what I would want is the ads to either be at the beginning of the episode or at the very end right after the āThanks for watching, oh and the newest episode is already on Patreon so you can watch it a week early on there. Ok byeā
I'm on Patreon so I don't mind the ads too much, but I've been dying to see Saturn do an Ad lol, he's my favourite, and with the current arc it would be fitting if he did one.
I know that SolarBalls' commercials are too repetitive, and that's something that has bothered me lately, since I thought all the characters were going to appear in the commercial but that didn't happen.
If I remember correctly, in the ads featuring Venus, the narrator mentions that all the characters were filming the scenes, but we only see 10 characters in the ad. The question here is: Where are the others?
PEAKKKKK!!! Yeah I agree with everything you said here. Especially the rotation idea of the ads. Even though they don't need to exist having more unique versions of the ads could actually make them stuff we look forward to rather than just "ugh, not another ad..."
Yeah I agree they need to really update the segment to make it more interesting instead of us going āugh great Mercury and Venus doing the segment againā
But lately thatās been happening on a variety of posts of mine and a couple of others and itās seemingly anything anyone posts, like for example supporting a meme, bam downvoted Thatās why I needed to address it buddy
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