h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This is what my husband yells every time the adverts come on when we're watching telly. Is it just us, or does everyone find that the sound level goes up considerably during the ad break? Why is this?
Is it so we can still hear from the kitchen while we're making tea/getting another beer? Or maybe it's to wake us up? Why? Someone out there must know!

It's true. Sort of.

What is happening is something called Compression. While there is an upper limit to how loud an advert can be (prescribed by the ITC or some other statutory body) advert makers still try and get over that by compressing the sound so that, although it's not louder than the maximum volume, the sound has all been compressed into a narrower volume range which sits at the top of the acceptable volume range. This makes quiet sounds much louder, and the overall effect is the adverts are just consistently louder than the programmes that interrupt them.

I'm sure a sound engineer would be able to explain it with more accuracy than I have, but that's the basic reason.

Well thank-you! I knew it wasn't just me.
Ironic though that even after all this compressing and what have you, most of us still ignore the ads. I did a survey in the street the other day, all about pizza, and the woman showed me pictures from about four adverts and I didn't recognise any!!

They crank up the sound during the commercials here too, so it must be a universal phenomenon.

Fortunately, those of us in the English side of the pond get to watch the BBC, which frowns upon those nasty commercials and won't sully itself with them. The down side of this is that the BBC only carries a minority of good programs. oh well...

Jim Lynn explained how...but WHY? Do the advertising companies thing that louder means that the commercial will be pounded into our skulls? Or is there some other, more devious reason?
~Lisa

That's probably the reason why, but I've recently noticed an alarming trait in TV advertising. Well, one of many alarming things, but a recent one nonetheless.

While watching the baseball playoffs last year, I became aware of this. As many sports programs do, it comes back from a commercial with little notices thanking the sponsors of the program. They do much the same thing in the Olympics, so they don't have to break coverage of the games. Anyway, in the Olympics, I can understand, but for a regular game? Anyway, I digress. What they would do, though, to get your attention is broadcast a taped sound of a bat hitting a ball, which, of course, is a very distinctive sound, and for the person that is expecting a game to be on, they will turn their attention back to the TV, expecting that something's happened while they weren't paying attention.

What happens, in my junior-psychiatrist opinion, is that you are turning back to the TV with full attention, expecting to see action that you don't want to miss a bit of, and instead getting advertisements full in the face with your mind wide open. That really worries me.

I keep saying, "The next TV I have it's going to have one of those sound-control things that keep the volume at a constant level when those blaring commercials come on."

Just do what I do and don't watch TV in real time. Tape everything and skip the ads*.

I'm first in line for a TiVo when they come out over here (assuming they work properly, which I doubt).

* The downside of this solution is that, like me, you'll accumulate a video collection of over 2,500 tapes, but at least you'll never need to go to Blockbuster again.

Actually, that's just what I generally do (tape what few shows I care to watch)... After acquiring enough videos to stock Vegas I finally just started using about 3 or 4 and taping over them.

Yeah but having a massive collection of videos looks impressive doesn't it. And I think adverts aren't actually necassary. Its just Sods Law adding yet another thing to get annoyed at.

I wouldn't like having to be deluged by commercials if I were paying for cable, but even there the networks are after those advertising dollars. They could emulate PBS and just give a brief listing of who sponsored each show before it airs (spending maybe 5 seconds at best with each sponsor) and let it go at that.

However, for those of us who still depend on the air waves to bring us what little programming is worth catching, unfortunately the advertising dollars is what pays for it. I can live with commercials.. Gives me time to tend to other more pressing issues and stretch my legs. It's just that I don't think they should be louder than the shows so that one of those 'more pressing issues' is going after the aspirin for the migraine they give me.

They make them louder because they hope you'll still be able to hear them while you're out making tea/coffee during the ad break.


;^)#

The really depressing thing about adverts is that they work, despite all protestations to the contrary. For example, a WHAT a day helps you work, rest and play? WHO makes teabags make tea? Which beer is "Reassuringly Expensive?" It's sad, but we know the answers, don't we? Be honest now......

Yes, but that doesn't mean we'll buy the product, does it?

I'm a reverse consumer - I will refuse to buy products whose adverts annoy me, and that's quite a lot of products.

Whilst on the subject of annoying adverts I would like to mention American ads with english actor's voices dubbed in. Look Mr Ad Men, if you can't be arsed to make a new commercial then just leave the American actor's voices there. At least the lip-sinc is right. I would like to bring to everyones attention one of the worst adverts on British - and possibly American - TV. Yes I'm talking about Bounty Kitchen Towel "The Quicker Picker Upper" Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Sorry but I dont know the answers - but thats probably coz they're not advertised in this country - though the point is still valid.


;^)#

YES!! And what about that STUPID Febreeze add? And that Worther's Original one!!

GGRRRRRRRRR.......

Why do they insist on using dubbed children's voices too - They just don't sound like real children

They've even started to take the piss out of bad dubbing with Chocolate Orielles - or whatever they're called - where the dubbing translates teenage American slang. I think a general rule - that should be put in place by the ITC or international equivilent - should be that if the ad isn't hilarious - I'm mean on a Monty Python, Woody Allen level - then the ad can only be the company logo displayed for 30 seconds with no sond, twee visuals or annoying actors.