Is this my "Imagination"? Commercials

homedecor1 · ‎03-09-2010

I just have to ask as it's been NON-stop raining for over a week & I am not a TV watcher normally but what else to do when your stuck inside (flooding in our area). I swear the normal tv show I can watch on volume low then when commercials come on it's like a LOUD speaker was turned on. Is it me? 😳😱

sandraskates · ‎06-26-2014

Nope, it's not just you.

And worse yet - a couple of us were discussing Tut in the TV forum and on that show the dialogue could barely be heard, then the battles would start and blow out the eardrums! There was no leveling out of the sound.

Plaid Pants2 · ‎03-14-2015

@homedecor1 wrote:
I just have to ask as it's been NON-stop raining for over a week & I am not a TV watcher normally but what else to do when your stuck inside (flooding in our area). I swear the normal tv show I can watch on volume low then when commercials come on it's like a LOUD speaker was turned on. Is it me? 😳😱

No, it isn't just you. It's annoying as all get out.

house_cat · ‎03-09-2010

Wow! You must really not watch a lot of t.v. if you haven't noticed that before :-) Advertisers know that we walk away from the t.v. when there's a commercial break. I noticed that the commercials for my cable company are the loudest of all!

And speaking of commercials... is it my imagination that they have become rather vulgar lately? I was watching with my son one afternoon and saw a commercial for condoms, Viagra, an IUD, vaginal lubrication cream AND someone talking about "enjoying the go".. with "go" meaning taking a poop! Whaaaa? Is nothing private anymore? Whatever happened to peanut butter, toothpaste and dish detergent commercials?

~ house cat ~

colliemom4 · ‎09-08-2010

No it's not you. My husband said that it was supposed to be illegal now? But it's still happening. I have noticed it's not as bad as it used to be.

tedEbear · ‎03-22-2015

HOME DECOR-----definitely not just you. Just like COLLIEMOM says Commercials are REGULATED,not against the law. Commercials can only be as loud as the LOUDEST sound in the show the ad is advertising in. I THINK that is why the music and everything EXCEPT the voices are so loud, the ad agency must be giving dollar breaks if background gets pumped up, then the AD can run at the highest decibel of the show.

circles · ‎03-10-2010

I sleep with my T.V. on ...I can't leave the station on regular programming because the commercials are so loud they jar me awake...(I don't sleep very well as it is)....so before I plan on going to bed...I put the Q. on or HSN....sometimes one of the PBS stations...anything that does not have ads....

Vivian · ‎03-11-2010

Commercials are definitely louder than regular programs. I also thought a law had been passed forbidding louder commercials but now I see that the law pertained to the loudest sounds on TV shows. Not only are the ads loud but they are also more frequent. I have counted a full five minutes on some network breaks, making the commercials almost as long as the programs. If you watch old TV shows, the time allotted to them is often more than an hour or half hour, allowing for the additional commercial time. I have also read that in addition to cutting out parts of scenes, programs are subjected to a speed-up in order to accommodate commercials.

StylishLady · ‎03-11-2010

Advertising pays for the shows we watch. It's sometimes annoying, but if the show/story/movie is worth watching, so be it. Commercials are routinely recorded at higher volumes than much of the dialogue in shows. Directors try to get your attention by making some of the dialogue hard to hear, Alfred Hitchcock did this a lot in his movies.