I miss commercial break bumpers

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by altaeria, Nov 19, 2021.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Eric Richard

    Eric Richard Forum Resident

    Still looking for the ABC ROOTS bumper I made a thread about.
     
  2. Lenny99

    Lenny99 The truth sets you free.

    Location:
    Clarksburg WV

    I agree to ur description of commercials. They continue to increase in appearance and length. The other day while I was watching a program, a commercial came on that was do long I thought it was a dreaded infomercial. I checked the station I was viewing. Nope, just an extra long commercial.

    My father used to say that commercials pay for our free viewing of TV. At one time that might have been true.
    However, that is no longer the case. Most companies which are carriers of programs, receive a decent fee from the viewers. And worse, they cause one to purchase programs you don't want as part of a package.

    I would like to see Hulu and other similar carriers really take off. That might force more competition. And you know what is often said, "Competition never hurts the consumer."
     
    Michael likes this.
  3. PhilBorder

    PhilBorder Senior Member

    Location:
    Sheboygan, WI
    yeah, if things get that bad what good will gold coins do.
     
    LouChang likes this.
  4. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    .... 2 commercials that I just stand for a few seconds...Joe Namath and Jimmy Walker hawking health insurances...actually say they subscribe to it...
     
    Lenny99 and A Grain of Sand like this.
  5. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    it nearly does now...
     
  6. A Grain of Sand

    A Grain of Sand Forum Resident

    Location:
    Riverside, CA
    I’m with you there. William Shatner has joined them too. Almost as annoying as the talking green lizard.
     
    Michael likes this.
  7. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    like they need the money to hawk insurance medical especially...sickening and really annoying.
    yea, and the insurance company with the Gecko sucks...and so does that Green Lizard thing.
     
  8. Lenny99

    Lenny99 The truth sets you free.

    Location:
    Clarksburg WV


    Yep, those are terrible. They are so annoying I now switch channels when they are shown. They are surreal.
     
    Michael likes this.
  9. MikeInFla

    MikeInFla Glad to be out of Florida

    Location:
    Kalamazoo, MI
  10. Mal

    Mal Phorum Physicist

    I miss the LWT flashes:


     
    normanr likes this.
  11. jimac51

    jimac51 A mythical beast.

    Location:
    Allentown,pa.
    Alex Trebeck,a near-god with many forum members,hawked lots of stuff,including Colonial Life Insurance. Ed McMahon schlepped this years before. McMahon,Arthur Godfrey,Art Linkletter-just a few of many personalities hawking stuff-I wouldn't have trusted any of these hucksters. Life insurance is basically a gamble made by a person about their death.
     
    Michael likes this.
  12. Lenny99

    Lenny99 The truth sets you free.

    Location:
    Clarksburg WV


    I believe Life Insurance as sold by that company is a bad investment. Some other companies policies are OK for saving money and insurance. You pay for insurance and a little more for an investment. The investment is saved and accumulates a little interest for you; Cash Value. Some even pay dividends.

    But Colonial Life markets their policies to the aged. As though they will give u a good deal. Probably a large premium for a small amount of insurance. Very little cash value. When they say ur premium cannot increase that's true of almost all life insurance policies.

    I think it's a misleading add. I know a lot of celebrities hock stuff. This should teach the public a lesson. Just because Alex, Tom, Joe say so, it ain't so.....
     
  13. HGN2001

    HGN2001 Mystery picture member

    One of the things that many people who aren't in the television industry don't understand is the concept of "per inquiry" advertising. TV stations have a set amount of advertising per hour. The breaks are pre-defined so that the programming and commercial time all add up to sixty minutes per hour, exactly. And naturally, that commercial time is set at a maximum number of minutes, not a minimum. So, if the standard hour is now 43 minutes of programming and 17 minutes of commercials, then every one of those hours must be filled with 17 minutes of commercial material.

    During most times of the year, there are not scads of advertisers lined up to fill all of the time, particularly in off hours, so there is a category of advertiser called "Per Inquiry" accounts. These are generally identifiable by a 1-800 phone number. The concept here is that the advertiser gives the station a flat order to broadcast their message as many times as needed to fill out the TV station's ad inventory. The 1-800 number is the identifiable part for the advertiser. They pay the station a certain amount for every inquiry they get at that phone number, which should be unique for that TV station or group.

    Thus, all of these Jimmy Walker and Joe Namath ads are simply time fillers because the station's sales force wasn't able to sell time to grocery stores, car dealers, soap manufacturers and cereal makers. And the Medicare supplement ads will disappear after the December 7th deadline passes, and a new category of ads will start to appear. And be careful what you wish for - 2022 is a political election year, which is a whole 'nother ball game.
     
    nosticker, Eric Richard and Lenny99 like this.
  14. Lenny99

    Lenny99 The truth sets you free.

    Location:
    Clarksburg WV

    That's some good info. That would explain why one often sees the supplement adds airing one after another, sometimes the same add.
     
  15. Scowl

    Scowl Forum Resident

    Location:
    ?
    I've been avoiding commercials since the 80s when remote controls got mute buttons. That's when I read a book for three minutes.

    In pub trivia whenever the topic is commercials, I have no clue what the answers are.
     
    j_rocker likes this.
  16. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    but they seemed so much less annoying...
     
  17. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    usually mute the sound...
     
    MikeInFla likes this.
  18. TheNightfly1982

    TheNightfly1982 Forum Resident

    Location:
    The New Frontier
    I still miss having those brief recurring signature or theme music bumpers announcing that a program would be "right back" or would "return in a moment." It may seem trivial, but it was a nice personal touch for the audience. It also wasn't that long ago when you actually had a second or two of 'dead air' in between commercials. Everything seems so rushed now.
     
  19. HGN2001

    HGN2001 Mystery picture member

     
    altaeria likes this.
  20. BobT

    BobT Resident Monkeeman

    This is a re-creation of one of the bumpers for The Monkees TV show.
     
    j_rocker, Lenny99 and MikeInFla like this.
  21. rmath84

    rmath84 Forum Resident

    I only watch streaming services that don't have commercials. There are any number of shows I'd like to watch on Pluto but they are the worst. Commercials pop in mid-sentence. It's mildly amusing to watch old TV shows and see the obvious lead-up to a commercial that fortunately never happens.
     
    Last edited: Nov 24, 2021
  22. bmasters9

    bmasters9 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Fountain Inn, SC
    And here is one big example of those from when I was a boy: ABC's Star Tunnel movie broadcast graphics and music. Here it is from an '83 ABC Movie Special broadcast of the John Travolta Paramount classic Saturday Night Fever (CC bumper, opening, and bumpers for continuance and end of broadcast [continuance bumpers read by the late, great Voice of ABC, Ernie Anderson]):

     
    Last edited: Nov 24, 2021
    altaeria and TheNightfly1982 like this.
  23. Kyle B

    Kyle B Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago
    I liked the ones from Laverne and Shirley where Penny and Cindy would do some little bit.

    Shirley: There’ll be more fun when the commercial’s done. Hey Laverne, I made a rhyme!
    Laverne, sarcastically: Whoopee.

    Happy Days used to do them too. I remember one where Joanie said to please come back after the commercial, or she’d be sent to her room. Howard and Marion had one, too. “Happy Days will be back in a moment, won’t it dear?” “Yes, sweetheart.”
     
    altaeria likes this.
  24. nosticker

    nosticker Forum Guy

    Location:
    Ringwood, NJ
    When I worked in radio, the "PI" spots would be more appear more frequently in breaks as the night wore on. I also knew someone who caught hell for airing the spot for the right product, but the wrong 800 number. Those PI spots actually had the 800 number as the ISCI code(usually a code of 4 letters and numbers to identify the spot).


    Dan
     
    Lenny99 and altaeria like this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine