At some point in our lives we’ve all either been home sick from work or taken a stay-cation or had something come up that provided us the opportunity to have a gander at daytime TV commercials. You know the ones I’m talking about. The ones for trade/technical schools so you can learn refrigerator repair. Oh, and don’t forget about all those commercials for lawyers who specialize in “Getting your disability claim approved”. After all, “THEY MEAN BUSINESS”. Those commercials are targeting a specific audience likely to be watching at that time. Well, radio is no different, right? During the course of the day, there will be commercials specifically targeted to the audience who might be listening at that time.
When I listened to traditional morning radio during my commute to work, I would hear no fewer than 10 commercials for breakfast at McDonald’s. Wouldn’t I love to try their new McGriddles and a nice hot cup of coco? “Why yes”, I say as my car steers its way into the McD’s drive through, “Now that you mention it, I think some coco might be nice”. Corporate commercial mission success: 1. Ilisa’s diet: 0.
I bought a Volvo last year and it came with Sirius XM satellite radio. I fell in love immediately. The majority of channels are commercial free. That said, my two favorite channels, Raw Dawg and Blue Collar Radio (both comedy channels) have commercials. Limited ones, but commercial’s nonetheless. Just like any other outlet, they have a target audience. The audience who listens to that genre.
Now, I know what genre I’m NOT. I’m certainly not looking for a disability claim, a payout from a car accident, a new trade school education, or the newest Swiffer mop that will miraculously get my house clean enough to give me enough time to ‘finally read a book’. I just happened to have a day off and caught the commercial at that time.
However, I listen to the comedy channels religiously on my way to and from work. They play the classics like George Carlin, Eddie Murphy, and Bill Cosby. I really like the newer stuff too. I’m a huge fan of Kathleen Madigan, John Pinette, Ralphie May, Ron White, and Bill Engvall. The only thing that bothers me about these two stations in particular are the commercials. They are geared solely towards men and are all about penis function and sex. Seriously. Every commercial is either for penis enhancement or enlargement, prostitution (trying ineffectively to disguise itself as another “dating” website), porn websites, and stores that sell sex toys.
After several months of being bombarded with these commercials I’m beginning to have a complex. These companies spend big money on research and development to ensure they are advertising to their target audience. Obviously the predominant audience is the lonely, hard-up, male pervert. Is there something wrong with me? Could I really be a lonely, hard-up, male pervert in denial???
4 comments:
EVERYBODY is a hard up male pervert in denial.
No, you're not a man, a pervert or anything else in denial!
Just because some suit at a radio station decides that it's hard-up men who should be listening to comedy in their car, doesn't mean it's limited to that audience.
I used to listen to the XM comedy stations all the time. I say "used to" because when they merged with Sirius, they went from being commercial-free to exactly what you described. So I stopped listening. Bummer, but there are still plenty of other commercial-free stations available, so that's what I listen to now, exclusively.
As much as I love all the comedians you listed, I'm paying for no commercials, so I'm damned well going to get no commercials. There are a lot of other worthwhile stations, so I encourage you to branch out when you feel like you should be growing a (limp) penis and looking for a date. :-)
And you can see how differently men and women think by looking at the two almost-simultaneous comments from DrChako and me! LOL.
Ha ha ha! Maura, you are SO right. Also, I actually do switch the stations every time those commercials come on now. I have 12 different stations on my XM preset. I do so love sattelite!
And Chuck...you're a dorkus maximus.
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