Episode #146: Let's Get Commercialized!

Back in the day, I used to be a devotee of t.v. and radio commercials. Mostly because the shows sandwiched around the commercials were crap, but partially because I liked to see if I could recognize any of the voice actors who did radio.

But this isn't about that, although that would make a very cool post someday. This is about the migration of annoying commercials from radio and t.v. land to You Tube.

You Tube carries a variety of both regular commercials and infomercials that they are more than happy to annoyingly insert into the videos that you're watching unless you deem yourself to be Mr/Mrs Moneybags and how no problem paying a hefty monthly fee to have them removed. But this isn't about the semantics of making money hand over fist either. This is about the time of bizarre commercials being shown.

I will touch upon briefly the various commercial lengths, which go from 6 seconds to bother skippable and unskippable 15 seconds to 15 minutes and beyond, and all lengths in between. Now that's out of the way, onto more annoying things.

Anyways, most of those late night commercials touting almost every conceivable medical/doomsday/clothing/everything you can possibly think of have migrated to YouTube to annoy you.

Want to listen to crappy political PSA's from politicians bragging about solving a budget deficit that their own party helped create previously? You got it here. You want to watch ads touting men's personal grooming products*? You got it here, among other places. Want to watch ads touting all kinds of insurance companies, including one where a guy snorts his beard*? You got it here. You want ads touting all kinds of weight loss products (you, yes you! have toxic poop!*)? You got it here. Want to advertise your "medicinal" marijuana mail order dispensary*? You got it here.

Almost every single product you can possibly think of, can be found on YouTube. Why? Because it's cheaper to shoot a few commercials and have them inserted into various videos to hit your target audience than it is to advertise on television. Both well known companies and smaller niche companies will advertise on YouTube because it's easier and cheaper to do. Plus, you can do commercials as short as 6 seconds to get your point across, as opposed to doing a fifteen to thirty second advert on television, and become more memorable in the process.

The asterisk. Two paragraphs back I noted some of the more memorable commercials I've seen with an asterisk. That was so I could elaborate more fully later. This is later. In order noted, a short description of the product is as follows:

1} Political PSA's. 'Nuff said, although the Dems are doing better than the GOP with socialized media.

2} Men's personal grooming. The biggie here is a company called Manscape. They make male grooming products for below the waist. Not only have I seen ads on YT for them, but I've seen other YT channels pimp them, as well as podcasts pimping them. I have also seen ads for manly soap and butt deodorant, so yeah.

3} Stare Farms has a series of vignettes for their product line, including one featuring a man who likes to sniff his beard after a meal. That one is skippable after 6 seconds.

4} Yes, there is a cleansing product that promises to help you get rid of your 20 pounds of toxic poop.

5} The medical Mary Jane mail order dispensary bugs me the most, because the company hired, at least to me, very old dedicated potheads who did absolutely nothing with their lives in the last 40 years. 

These are just small select sample of ads you can involuntarily watch on YouTube that have managed to stand out to me over the past few years of watching videos on everyone's favorite mindless platform. Have you seen any that have sadly stuck out to you over the preceding weeks/months that you're willing to share? Inquiring minds want to know.

Oh and, Grammarly is big on YT as well. And liquor, yuppie hard seltzer and bra ads for those of you who are either top heavy or...the first letter of the alphabet.

Note: I can 100% verify that every type of commercial just mentioned I have personally seen on YouTube, especially in the last paragraph. I give major props to the women who participated in those types of commercials.

{c} 2022 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved