I just realized why commercials are so much louder than the shows they interrupt

[Orrex]

It's because the advertisers don't give a shit about the people watching at home, knowing that home-based viewers will just hit "Mute" or change the channel.

Advertisers are aiming at the relatively captive audiences found in bars, restaurants, doctors' offices, and the like. In those places, most of the customers/patients have tuned out whatever program was on the air and are instead focusing on their drinks or dinner or newspapers or whatever. Then BOOM! Along comes the Cialis commercial at 3X the normal volume, and everyone's attention is suddenly renewed.


And anyone who says that commercials aren't actually louder is to have sex with Ronald Reagan.

[charlie and algernon]

1. they're allowed to make them as loud as the loudest moment on the TV show

or so I've heard

[Orrex]

3. Then I'm surprised that advertisers don't demand that every show start with a 747 taking off

I've heard that same thing, incidentally. I wonder how the hell they determine it, though, because I see the same loud commercials on CNN that I see on ABC.

[evlbstrd]

2. They've always been louder.

It goes back to before the invention of the mute button.

[madinmaryland]

4. They were loud before the invention of the mute button!

OTOH, it gave you a lot of exercise getting out of the couch and walking over to the television to turn the volume dial down to zero.

:D

[darkstar3]

5. Actually, the original idea was for you to hear it in the kitchen. n/t

[Ptah]

6. Telivision is an audience delivery system.

Those that pay for it get to shout.

[LynneSin]

7. They do wake me up during boring shows

If I wake up do to a loud commercial I turn off the TV and do something else

[Auggie]

8. As I understand it, the FCC sets maximum noise limits for broadcasts. It's not

that commercials are too loud, it's that networks set their programming volume lower. It's a little favor broadcasters do for their advertisers.

[Deja Q]

9. And I thought necrophilia was illegal...

:yoiks:

[Kitty Herder]

10. You may be right.

Because it does seem self-defeating to make them so loud that people at home just mute them or switch channels. I never thought about the captive audiences in public places.