I've been thinking about this and https://speterdavis.substack.com/p/the-myth-of-lowering-the-temperature since you published them, integrating with another author's post asking why there is no broadcast of left-leaning talk radio in the US. The lowering-temperature article had me thinking about my uncle who came back from Vietnam with such a wicked case of PTSD that, had he lived into the 21st century, he might have been driven to family murder-suicide by the anger-fear of the nuclear fission temperature of the online discourse -- I have to wonder if that's happening around us, an unreported association if not pure causality. ANYway: for most of my adult life, I've consciously resisted advertising. I mute them on TV, I change stations during ads on radio, I pay extra for the ad-free streaming whenever it's available, I taught my kids that if they listen to the ads, the advertisers "win", I edit them out of photos where a semi-truck was going by behind my subjects... I naively thought with the advent of cable TV that my paying a subscription for the channels would mean I wouldn't have to endure advertising. Yeah, Adbusters was probably the driving influence.
My kids reported that their peers found this adamant approach really weird. I think it's weird that most people just endure them without thinking about their harms (over-consumption, body dysmorphic disorder, patriarchy, racism...). I don't know the answers to funding media any more than I know how to deprogram a Trump cultist. But I won't endure even the best new radio programming if it's choked with ads. It's a f*ing miracle that I'm not seeing ads on Substack. That may be half the reason I'm quite willing to pay+contribute for newsletters like yours.
For me, Stranger Things is the canary in the coal mine. Once it was Netflix’s flagship show. The kind that drives new subscriptions. Now it exemplifies the fact that the new model can only produce 6 episodes every 3 years. Who knew watching season 1 that we would see the Hawkins kids grow up in front of our eyes? Millie Bobby Brown is married now. Married!
I think we could replace every single ad from here on out with a generic prompt of "Hey, if you like PRODUCT X, please consider that ADVERTISER Y helps support its ongoing production. Here's our thing. Ok, back to PRODUCT X."
Every ad could be ~5 seconds, and I'd be drastically more likely to have positive feelings about ADVERTISER Y, versus my current feelings of "I refuse to buy anything ever offered to me via an ad *out of sheer spite* for having purposefully interrupted my chosen media."
It's basically what they're already doing on yetube, but don't you dare make me get up and click a whole other-ass button to 'skip' the 'rest of the ad'. There is literally never any need for a 'rest of the ad'. Brevity is the soul of selling shit y'all.
You can't even leave Youtube videos running in the background because of this. If you look away for too long then it will randomly give you an ad the length of a full feature film. Who is gonna sit there and willingly watch those ads, let alone actually buy the products they're selling?
Thanks for pointing out that books are indeed a sustainable source of media. Movies too I suppose (I don’t understand the movie business, or watch much, so I’ll just take your word for it). And maybe literary magazines, too, especially those that are affiliated with—and subsidized by—universities or organizations.
Which brings me to a question. The one effective way I have to gain access to a vast sea of research media is through a university library account. Now that my wife has finished her master’s, and I am no longer employed in academia, I am cut off.
Unless I were to enroll as a student again, somewhere affordable, an adult-ed or continuing-ed program? Or look for adjunct professor gigs?
To what degree might academia become a viable back door for journalistic access to that paywalled sea of academic research, global journalism, and popular media?
(It isn’t attainable for everyone, but maybe for independent journalists like yourself? For indie authors researching their books?)
Certain products, medications of any type especially, shouldn’t ever be advertised. Big Pharma can keep lobbying docs with free lunches without shoving all the latest mishmash in our faces via our screens.
As far as streaming content goes, most of it is SO boring, poorly conceived and cheaply produced: overbearing ads just seal the unsubscribe deal.
I've been thinking about this and https://speterdavis.substack.com/p/the-myth-of-lowering-the-temperature since you published them, integrating with another author's post asking why there is no broadcast of left-leaning talk radio in the US. The lowering-temperature article had me thinking about my uncle who came back from Vietnam with such a wicked case of PTSD that, had he lived into the 21st century, he might have been driven to family murder-suicide by the anger-fear of the nuclear fission temperature of the online discourse -- I have to wonder if that's happening around us, an unreported association if not pure causality. ANYway: for most of my adult life, I've consciously resisted advertising. I mute them on TV, I change stations during ads on radio, I pay extra for the ad-free streaming whenever it's available, I taught my kids that if they listen to the ads, the advertisers "win", I edit them out of photos where a semi-truck was going by behind my subjects... I naively thought with the advent of cable TV that my paying a subscription for the channels would mean I wouldn't have to endure advertising. Yeah, Adbusters was probably the driving influence.
My kids reported that their peers found this adamant approach really weird. I think it's weird that most people just endure them without thinking about their harms (over-consumption, body dysmorphic disorder, patriarchy, racism...). I don't know the answers to funding media any more than I know how to deprogram a Trump cultist. But I won't endure even the best new radio programming if it's choked with ads. It's a f*ing miracle that I'm not seeing ads on Substack. That may be half the reason I'm quite willing to pay+contribute for newsletters like yours.
is that fucking angus sampson?
I see you are a man of culture
This is a great piece. There’s some overlap with Daniel Bessner’s essay in Harper’s Bazaar https://harpers.org/archive/2024/05/the-life-and-death-of-hollywood-daniel-bessner/ . I’m not saying this to be a dick. I just think it’s interesting that I’ve read two pieces that lay the blame squarely at the feet of venture capital.
For me, Stranger Things is the canary in the coal mine. Once it was Netflix’s flagship show. The kind that drives new subscriptions. Now it exemplifies the fact that the new model can only produce 6 episodes every 3 years. Who knew watching season 1 that we would see the Hawkins kids grow up in front of our eyes? Millie Bobby Brown is married now. Married!
I think we could replace every single ad from here on out with a generic prompt of "Hey, if you like PRODUCT X, please consider that ADVERTISER Y helps support its ongoing production. Here's our thing. Ok, back to PRODUCT X."
Every ad could be ~5 seconds, and I'd be drastically more likely to have positive feelings about ADVERTISER Y, versus my current feelings of "I refuse to buy anything ever offered to me via an ad *out of sheer spite* for having purposefully interrupted my chosen media."
It's basically what they're already doing on yetube, but don't you dare make me get up and click a whole other-ass button to 'skip' the 'rest of the ad'. There is literally never any need for a 'rest of the ad'. Brevity is the soul of selling shit y'all.
You can't even leave Youtube videos running in the background because of this. If you look away for too long then it will randomly give you an ad the length of a full feature film. Who is gonna sit there and willingly watch those ads, let alone actually buy the products they're selling?
Thanks for pointing out that books are indeed a sustainable source of media. Movies too I suppose (I don’t understand the movie business, or watch much, so I’ll just take your word for it). And maybe literary magazines, too, especially those that are affiliated with—and subsidized by—universities or organizations.
Which brings me to a question. The one effective way I have to gain access to a vast sea of research media is through a university library account. Now that my wife has finished her master’s, and I am no longer employed in academia, I am cut off.
Unless I were to enroll as a student again, somewhere affordable, an adult-ed or continuing-ed program? Or look for adjunct professor gigs?
To what degree might academia become a viable back door for journalistic access to that paywalled sea of academic research, global journalism, and popular media?
(It isn’t attainable for everyone, but maybe for independent journalists like yourself? For indie authors researching their books?)
Certain products, medications of any type especially, shouldn’t ever be advertised. Big Pharma can keep lobbying docs with free lunches without shoving all the latest mishmash in our faces via our screens.
As far as streaming content goes, most of it is SO boring, poorly conceived and cheaply produced: overbearing ads just seal the unsubscribe deal.
I never did like Pepsi, I said slowly.