Moving at the Speed of Creativity - Jumbotrons and forced advertising consumption

Jumbotrons and forced advertising consumption

Published by Wesley Fryer in economics on September 4th, 2006

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I love college football, so it should come as no surprise that this is one of my favorite times of the year! I detest forced consumption of advertising, however, so my feelings were a bit mixed this past weekend when I enjoyed the dedication of Bill Snyder Family Stadium in Manhattan, Kansas. The new jumbotron in the south endzone may not come close to UT’s Godzillatron, but it still seemed awfully nice… until the first round of blaring ads began, that is.

I realize that advertising is an important part of the capitalist, consumer-driven economy which produces an unprecedented variety and diversity of products for many in the early 21st century…. and I am not offering a general critique of capitalism here. I will observe, however, that I am increasingly bothered by advertisements– probably because thanks to my iPod shuffle, podcasts, and recorded DVR shows, I rarely am subjected to advertising via audio and video anymore. The short Acura car ads on NPR podcasts are so short I find them quite palatable, but I’ll pass on the TV commercials now shown on college football stadium jumbotrons.

Oh well. These brief moments of forced advertising consumption are a small price to pay for the excitement of live, college football I suppose. I guess these types of opportunities for advertisers (which also include movie previews at the movie theater, I’ve noticed) will continue to get both more rare and valuable. Long live the iPod and the DVR! I love opting-out of advertisements. Thankfully consumers can opt-out more than ever today, and I hope this trend continues to grow in the years ahead.

On this day..

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2 Comments »

Scott S. Floyd

Not to mention the ads that popped up on the field virtually behind the QB’s rear end all weekend long on television. I just turned it off. I got a lot of reading time in.
http://www.speakingofhistory.blogspot.com Eric Langhorst

Wes – Great to hear a college football comment! As you might remember, I’m a huge Husker fan and was at the Husker game on Saturday in Lincoln. We also have a huge new jumbotron – slighly smaller than Texas – but the interesting thing they did this year is take down all ads everywhere inside the stadium except for the huge jumbotron and the two smaller ones on the east and the west. I noticed the lack of ads right away and thought it looked great.