The other morning I had the kitchen television on while I packed my daughter's lunch. I was standing at the kitchen counter, sliced ham in hand, when I glanced at the screen just in time to see a close up shot of a cold sore. I wasn't watching a medical show, this was a commercial for cold sore ointment. I quickly looked away and went back to layering sliced ham on bread, but it wasn't easy with the image of an oozing cold sore burned into my brain. Thank goodness my daughter likes mustard on ham, mayo might have been more than I could handle, just then.
With lunch making duty complete, I sat down to drink some of my coffee and forget the nasty cold sore image. I grabbed the remote, scanned through the preview guide and found a movie that I like, a comedy, so I thought I might watch that for a few minutes. I clicked over to it just in time for a commercial. No cold sore this time, instead, acne treatment. Before I go on, let me just say that I sympathize with anyone who has stubborn acne. Who hasn't had the occasional pimple, right? That said, I could live without images of erupting zits.
Over the next 20 or 30 minutes, I saw plaque along the gum line in a toothpaste commercial, before and after shots of an infected cut in an ad for anti-bacterial cream, cat urine in a commercial for carpet cleaner, nail fungus in an advertisement for anti-fungal treatment, skin erupting into goose bumps in a commercial for peppermint candy and filthy dog teeth in a commercial for canine plaque spray. I won't even mention the number of commercials where people are licking food off their lips, their fingers, or in the case of the Doritos commercial, another person's fingers. All this before 7:00 a.m. When did watching television become so disgusting? I can understand how all of these products work without seeing the oozing, dripping, crusted results.
Maybe it's just me. It's certainly possible that other people aren't as easily grossed out as I am. We occasionally go to a particular restaurant that has big screen TVs mounted above the bar and in different locations around the dining area. Usually, they will have sports or news on, but once while we were there, they had the Dr. Oz show on several of the screens. The topic of the show had something to do with plastic surgery and they were showing the removal of skin tags. I saw people glancing at the screen while they were eating so I can only assume that no one complained or asked that the channel be changed. I couldn't see it very well, but it's not something I would choose to watch during a meal (or at any time, really).
How about you? Do these images gross you out, too?
Willoughby
Sunday, March 27, 2011
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8 comments:
Good Morning,
Thank goodness I am at school and cannot watch morning TV! My hubby watches those shows where they are doing surgery...that's when I say "See you later!"
Enjoy the rest of your weekend. ~Natalie
I wonder if the medical gods were trying to tell you something that morning. LOL
I guess the advertisers think that the images will inspire people to buy their products.
I agree with you. I'm tired of the Advertisers who make it their business to invade me with commercials that are alittle more than I can stand in the am. Or for that matter, at a restaurant. I think the Advertisers pay huge sums of money to dictate what and how they will sell a product. It's gone overboard. And the commercials about "depression" go on and on and on. Whenever I see any of these commercials, I quickly change the channel. Good post!
In my line of work I am desensitized to a lot. But what I do find offensive are the erectile dysfunction ads which are EVERYWHERE these days.
I wanted to say I almost puked when I read that but did not want to gross you out! hahaha it's all so nasty, why do private things have to be so public? yuck.
thanks for the good laugh at your expense. I don't know if I ever had such a series of ads. We have a habit here of muting the ads so it's easier to ignore them. We don't have a DVR which I guess is the best defense.
Too gross - it takes quite a bit but I see your point. Also, I agree with 5thsis above - the only thing those ED ads are good for is a joke.
I was JUST thinking about this. There was a day when tv was "viewer friendly"...wasn't there? Or maybe I'm just romanticizing??? I would have sworn that I used to watch cartoons that didn't have characters burping, farting, and picking their noses...
Oh...wait...those aren't shown anymore...they're too violent.
We record almost all our TV so I always whiz through commercials. I think I'm really glad we do this now....yuck!
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