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I’m not a big TV watcher. I like the occasional GSN program, The Office, of course, some ball games, and my HBO shows, but other than that, I’d rather watch my 10-month-old because he’s a) less predictable, b) funnier, and c) doesn’t make me sit through snipes, bugs and data dumps.
Who’s with me on this growing trend? Honestly, it’s like one day all the networks had a powwow and some young exec cajoled everyone into slapping these untoward things all over our screens.
Let’s break down the categories:
1. Snipes
These are animated advertisements that zoom on, pop up, twirl through or explode around the lower-third of the screen. Usually they’re promos for upcoming programs or sometimes ads for products by the sponsors.
2. Bugs
These are the annoying channel logos which seem to be growing in size every time I turn on the tube. I don’t mind them so much when the opacity is cranked down to near transparency, but have you seen NBC’s lately? Man-o-man! That moving peacock thing is such a distraction, no?
3. Data Dumps
According to Wiki, crawling news, or data dumps, debuted long before the 24-hour news networks took over. “The first record of a news ticker as part of a regular broadcast is from NBC’s Today show on its debut edition, January 14, 1952. Without the benefit of computer-generated headlines and graphics, the ticker was vastly different than the one we would know today. The Today ticker was an actual piece of paper with typewritten headlines superimposed on the lower third of the screen. The ticker was never very successful as a communications tool, and was dropped not long thereafter.”
Of course, today, it seems every station has a crawl or two. Have you seen ESPN News in HD? It’s filled with horizontal crawls, vertical crawl spaces, BREAKING NEWS alerts! that come and go with forced urgency, and tabs that move atop the picture. I’m telling you, it makes Bloomberg look like PBS.
Soon, if the networks have their way, the viewing space will be a 2×3 square, freeing up the rest of the screen for ads because everyone will have TiVo, or its equivalent.
So what’s the antidote smart readers? We need some solutions to this unsettling trend, and fast.
Comments (35)
Comment
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Stop watching TV, get a Wii and a Netflix subscription. 100% effective
posted by Ira on 6-4-2008 at 9:46 am
I saw one on TBS last night, where Bill Engval actually ‘paused’ family guy in the middle of a joke and plugged his new show.
GAH!
posted by Codius on 6-4-2008 at 10:12 am
I totally agree with you. Advertising is everywhere. That said, I watch a lot of television. I crumble about the logos, the crawls, and and all those promos for upcoming movies, shows etc that pop up on the screen. But the internet is no better, in fact at times it’s worse. I hate those new drop down adverts that you have to close in order to advance the page.
Jo-Ann
posted by Jo-Ann Burton on 6-4-2008 at 10:13 am
What’s the antidote!?!?!!?
What Ira said!!! Stop watching!!!!!!
If it doesn’t work, you won’t care!!!!
posted by Rich Beckman on 6-4-2008 at 10:16 am
Personally, I would like sports broadcasts to be like NBC’s experiment from back in the 80’s (I think) for a New York Jets game that featured no announcers. The audio was just the live game sound and crowd noise. That format would be even better with today’s surround systems. Of course there should also be a lack of distracting graphics (I agree: a thoroughly loathsome trend these days).
posted by Steve on 6-4-2008 at 10:27 am
I will say this Data dumps are CRUCIAL. I don’t care what ESPN is talking about, I care about my scores for my teams, granted one is the Patriots, so that’s usually what they were talking about but what if I like the raiders who are playing the titans, no one cares so I’d need to get my info from the dumps. ESPN is the one channel that does sports news right.
That being said The other two points are right on.
posted by Kinglink on 6-4-2008 at 10:40 am
Personally, I hate how they smoosh the credits down to an unreadable size and then speed them up. Yeah, I know most people use the time to get a snack or go to the bathroom, but still. The minor cast and the crew deserve as much credit as the top billing people. It really bugs me.
posted by gibson8or on 6-4-2008 at 10:45 am
A bit about the logos on TV? What’s next for the Floss, an inquiry into why they don’t make the whole plane out of the black box?
posted by Erik on 6-4-2008 at 11:03 am
I’m just glad I’m not the only one that’s noticed the annoying, worsening trend!
posted by David R. McKinzie on 6-4-2008 at 11:23 am
As for Erik, you must not read Mental_floss much, as it’s filled with the inane, funny, real, serious, irksome, and personal pet-peeves – at the author’s and editor’s discretion!
posted by David R. McKinzie on 6-4-2008 at 11:27 am
@ gibson8or
why do we need credits at all? They’re really just unnecessary selfish acknowledgements that somone worked on a specific project.
At what point in my life will knowing the name of the gaffer in any movie become at all useful?
posted by Florida on 6-4-2008 at 11:29 am
I’d like to be able to chose what crawl I want – and have it not even be related to what I’m watching. Why can’t I watch SoapNet (I don’t) and have the ESPN crawler on (ditto).
posted by rzklkng on 6-4-2008 at 11:33 am
The worst example I’ve seen was on a Halloween episode of M*A*S*H broadcast on the Hallmark channel.
In this particular episode, a soldier is brought in with a toe tag, so everybody assumes he’s dead. The audience sees a twitch of his arm, but none of the characters notice. The big dramatic moment later in the show is when Father Mulcahy is giving him last rites, sees him crying, and realizes that this soldier is actually alive.
Hallmark chose this moment to plaster a big ad for their next show at the bottom of the screen, and it was so big, you couldn’t tell the soldier character was crying! You could see the rest of his face, but not the part that was the entire point of the shot!
posted by gmsc on 6-4-2008 at 11:44 am
The most recent Simpsons Halloween special had Marge interact with/kill the characters in the ’snipes.’ One of the funniest things I’d seen them do in years.
@ gibson8or – I’m with you; the squished and sped-up credits are ridiculous. So, I’d have to respectfully disagree with
@ Florida – there have been a couple of times that I’ve taken research notes from programs, but had to pull up IMDB to find the writer, producer, etc. for the bibliographic entry.
posted by Roger on 6-4-2008 at 11:55 am
There is a new sort of ad that I pray to the Lord never catches on. I forget what network it was on, but midway through a character’s sentence, the show just stops, and they superimposed a video of Jeff Foxworthy telling you about a big new show coming up! After delivering his spiel Foxworthy says “Back to your show” and the show starts again.
posted by Zach on 6-4-2008 at 12:01 pm
Netflix & HBO OnDemand & Howard Stern TV
Problem solved!
I spent the past weekend watching season 2 and 3 of The Office.
posted by Daethan on 6-4-2008 at 12:03 pm
Snipes bother me the most when they make noise. Their visual interruption is bad enough, but when they garble the dialog, it gets me really mad.
posted by n2y2 on 6-4-2008 at 12:06 pm
Codius–I saw that too! It made me so mad I actually shut it off (or to be more accurate, I put it on my DVR and watched Daily Show re-runs instead).
I don’t know what’s to be done about them, but having Bill Engvall actually come out and pause the show I’m trying to watch is just too much.
posted by Fruppi on 6-4-2008 at 12:24 pm
In a similar vein, I HATE people who pull out their cell phones at the movie theater and hold it up in front of their head so everyone behind them cans see the backlit LCD screen.
It is even more distracting than animated bugs because the theater is so dark. Plus, I am not paying $5/hour to watch TV like I do for movies.
I wish that the theaters would hire an usher to sit in the theater during the movie to eject these offenders and others. (Like the time the lady behind me was able to ‘predict’ every upcoming scene in the Star Wars theater re-release. Oy Vey!)
Adding 20 cents to the price of every ticket would more than cover the wages of another employee for each theater and would be about a 2% increase. More that worth it to me.
posted by n2y2 on 6-4-2008 at 12:44 pm
@ Roger
and hence the term “research”
posted by Florida on 6-4-2008 at 12:47 pm
@ Florida – point taken, but it would be much easier to read at the time than try to follow up later. I will concede, however, that I’ve never had to look up a gaffer. ;-) Maybe they could just add a crawl to the bottom of the screen that runs MLA, APA, Turabian, etc. style entries for each program?
posted by Roger on 6-4-2008 at 1:11 pm
I’ll admit that I enjoy having the snipes; they’re useful for me if I come in during the movie/show and I want to know what it is without searching online for a channel guide. However, I DO wish they would make them smaller and non-animated–just something unobtrusive and useful. The same goes for bugs.
posted by nutmeag on 6-4-2008 at 1:19 pm
I saw the Bill Engvall one during Family Guy on TBS last night, too! It occurred during 2 consecutive episodes! It pissed me off big time.
posted by Sandy on 6-4-2008 at 1:22 pm
I remember when the split screen credits was actually kind of cool and different. I remember watching a few shows in the early-mid 90s that were experimenting with it as part of the format where something might happen in one half of the screen while the credits were rolling: SeaQuest for example used that time for PSAs, I think I remember a couple of others that played with that as well, actually putting postscripts on the program during that time. I have to say I’ve loved how Whose Line is it Anyway does the credits with someone Improving them. But I have to admit that the smooshed-fast credits are really irritating (and those logos that seem to only ever cover crucial elements of what’s going on onscreen, or some piece of text that they also tried to cram in and did a poor job of), especially when you find yourself wondering about someone or something you saw in the episode that you might want to look up afterward: an actor that played a minor role, a song you particularly enjoyed. All of these things used to be information you could glean from the credits. Now you just have to hope that *somebody* has been keeping up with IMDB.
Meh.
::deep breath:: Ok… I need to stop watching TV. Time to find a better use of my cognitive surplus.
posted by ACute Angle on 6-4-2008 at 1:32 pm
Codius, I saw the Bill Engvall snipe last night during FG too. I thought that was extreme.
posted by CFW on 6-4-2008 at 1:52 pm
I also saw the Bill Engvall thing. That has to be the worst idea the marketing gurus ever came up with. Unfortunately, it got our attention, so expect to see it more often.
posted by Li on 6-4-2008 at 2:05 pm
I got rid of my TV 4 years ago and haven’t missed it since.
posted by adrian on 6-4-2008 at 2:22 pm
I agree with rzklkng that it would be nice if tech reached the point where the things on the screen could be more tailored to your individual interests. If you could either select your own feeds (like RSS for your tv?), or if it did it through it’s own intelligence like Tivo or netflix does their recommendations? I wouldn’t mind the advertising and extra info and such if it were more likely to be relevant to my interests. And it probably would do a better job as advertising that way, actually generate more viewers or buyers if it were better targeted.
I also agree with the idea of hating the squinched up sped up credits. The regular size, regular speed, legible credits are okay. Sometimes you want to know who did things. The people who do things deserve recognition. That’s all fine. But the unreadable credits don’t serve anyone any purpose. If you want to know who did something, you don’t know from those. And it’s not respectful to the cast, crew, etc,either. Their hard work isn’t being honored by being illegible at the side of the screen. I’d rather not have credits than have them done that way.
posted by Melissa on 6-4-2008 at 3:48 pm
Florida – there is a line in the opening credit sequence of “The Great Muppet Caper” Fozzie asks why we have to see all the names of these people and Kermit says “They all have families too”.
I’m sure the gaffer works hard at his or her job and deserved credit for it, hence “the credits”.
posted by Em on 6-4-2008 at 4:20 pm
Re: Credits
There’s lots of information about a movie (especially an older or more obscure movie) that is difficult to find on the internet. It would be akin to buying a book with no publisher, author, or reference information in it.
Also, everyone involved in film and theater has to follow (and pay substantially for) specific union rules. This includes strict credit guidelines. And yes, knowing who the key grip is or whether or not the movie employed stunt doubles, or whatever, can be really interesting and important to lots of people.
posted by gibson8or on 6-4-2008 at 5:42 pm
Aw, man, I HATE these things! I saw the Bill Engval thing too and it really ticked me off. It almost made me hate Bill for doing that voluntarily. Almost.
There has to be someone deep in the annals of these ad agencies thinking “Y’know, having half of the TV screen pirated to cram even more advertisements into a 30-minute slot might just be pushing that ‘annoying but effective’ method we’ve been using.”
posted by heather on 6-5-2008 at 12:27 am
I, too, was so annoyed by the crawling tickers, I created a product to cover them up and started a business around it. I find them really distracting.
posted by Jan on 6-5-2008 at 10:13 am
I was watching Family Guy the other night when Bill Engvall showed up. He paused the show, said something stupid, and at the end he said something to the likes of “Be sure to watch the new season of my show, it’s coming soon.” As soon as he un-paused Family Guy, Peter Griffin said “crap” in a very dejected, “you-just-killed-my-spirit” kind of way. It was so perfectly timed for a minute I thought they’d modified the episode to fit in with that advertisement. It was so freakin’ sweet!
posted by bas on 6-5-2008 at 10:53 am
@n2y2
I recently saw the new Indiana Jones movie, and before the movie started (before the movie previews) they turned on the lights and an employee addressed the crowd. They told everyone to turn off phones, etc. And they had employees periodically come into the theater to make sure no one was talking on their phone or distrubing others. It was really nice.
Regarding tv, get rid of it. I watch everything online. They still have ads but very few and no snipes, etc. Just traditional 20-30 seconds ads. Also Netflix is another solution. You can get a whole season of a show and have a “marathon”. I end up watching 4 episodes in one night but then you don’t have to wait weeks for part 2. =)
posted by G on 6-5-2008 at 11:36 am
@rzklkng, I actually had that idea a couple years ago, but no idea actually how to implement it. I’d also like a la carte cable so I wouldn’t have to pay for channels I never watch, but they’ll never do that and anyways I got rid of my cable alltogether anyway.
posted by Julia on 6-5-2008 at 1:51 pm