Network Logos Must Go

[rabid1st]

I have had occasion before to rant about the offensive network logos and promos that run over the top of our programs. I believe these sort of obstructions to viewing pleasure cost the networks viewership and also encourage program piracy. A few weeks ago NBC ran some very offensive Despicable Me advertising across the bottom of shows. The little annoying guys would dance and drag huge obstructive signs across the program I was trying to watch. Result? I changed my mind about seeing Despicable Me. I had planned to go see it, but the offensive ads made me tell my sister I would rather just stay home and she could save her money. So they lost two viewers. I also stopped watching NBC for the duration and watched my shows on HULU.

Tonight, the season finale of Whale Wars, which I had been looking forward to for weeks and which I would share with both my companion and my sister (neither of them would watch on their own)...was ruined by the Animal Planet logo. I literally had to turn the damned thing off after 10 minutes. I could not stand having that huge block lettering plastered across the action. They made the classic offensive mistake of placing the three inch square blight in the upper right part of the screen. This meant that it was right over the faces of the people in the show. WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY THINKING?

It is time to stop watching shows that do this sort of crap. Who is with me? Networks need to stop pissing all over television like this. They can't seem to stop marking their territory. It's only gotten this bad in the last few years. It's one thing to protect your property with some kind of logo. It is quite another matter to make watching a show a trial to the viewer. I mean, I don't really care if Animal Planet stays on the air or not. I want a particular product from them...and I don't see why I should put up with their self-aggrandizing ruining the very thing I've given them ratings points to experience. I'm there for the program. If they can't deliver it, someone else will.

Comments

[wickedgillie.livejournal.com]

What a bunch of asshats. Sorry in particular that they ruined your whale thingummy for you!

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

I was really, really looking forward to it, too. I went back three times to check if they had taken down the logo. They removed it at the very middle of the program for about three minutes and I breathed a sigh of relief. Sadly, that was all I managed to get out...one sigh...and it was back in all of its glory.

Asshats is the correct term. I mean, what I really can't believe is that we put up with this nonsense from them. They had this simple idea...provide programming and then sell advertising space and have a captive audience for ads. Now, we pay for the cable...like 100 dollars a month...and we watch twice as many ads...and we have to put up with fewer shows a year...AND...we have to have the show itself ruined with logos? No!

[thisficklemob.livejournal.com]

What bugs me is the show advertisements during other shows, particularly during baseball playoffs. They know we all use mute, so the announcers talk up the show during the game in preplanned little segments where the show pops in front of the screen. STOP IT.

But yeah, I hate the intrusive logos/ads too. Having a little translucent station logo is one thing, having shit bouncing all over the place or taking up a quarter of the screen is another.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Yeah, some of those are very intrusive, too. I remember one for a dinosaur special that had the dinosaurs running across the screen. Right in the middle of the action on the show. It's like...wait, what happened in the show? Do they not understand that you need to follow the action on a narrative? You can't just miss things periodically. And all it does to me is make me determined not to watch whatever they advertise in this way.

Rae

[xlostangelx.livejournal.com]

I have this problem a lot with the travel channel especially when the logo covers up the subtitles - you know the ones that actually tell me what is being said in a foreign language.

[quill2006.livejournal.com]

Same here! I watch No Reservations, and the last few episodes have been really frustrating. They already have ads for their shows during the commercial break; I already know about the guy who eats bugs and such! I don't need to be told about him or any other show every two minutes!

[gwendolynflight.livejournal.com]

I'm with you! Even the cute ones, like on USA when the characters from various shows walk out and do something cute, are very distracting. I honestly don't want to see ads for something else DURING what I'm currently watching, that's what commercials are for, and if you don't like me recording things to my DVR and skipping the commercials, tough! I could always go back to pirating everything! It'd save $30/month, anyway. Argh.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

This is the thing, when you think about it. Cable normally costs 100 dollars. Then the network is collecting advertising money for the ads. And for product placement in the show. And on top of that they are disrupting the show with these very offensive banners and flashing characters and walk on clips. I don't care to watch all of that crap. And I do think that it leads to piracy. Certainly, I figured I would wait to watch the show in some rerun rather than put up with all the banners on it. When it becomes too offensive or obstructive to the viewing...you might as well not watch it.

And I don't even believe in skipping the ads. I watch them. But I don't watch something that is mucked up with stuff across the screen during the program. As you say...ARRRGGH!

Rae

[susanb03.livejournal.com]

This is one of the BEST advertisements for Netflix. This is why I wait for the Dvd and watch eveything at once!

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Yes! I was going to say that we could just wait for the DVD. Except I hate to give them money for a DVD of Whale Wars after they ruined it on regular TV. And I want Whale Wars to keep operating...and making new shows. I really want them to stop mucking up the show with these offensive logos.

:headdesk:

Rae