Congress peeved over loud commercials

[DEDixon 39]

i haven't watched TV in something like 2 years... this was one of the reasons i stopped watching. The other reason was the news breaks between shows (i don't care what's coming up at 5, 5:30, 6 or 11 and hearing what is coming up over and over again ticked me off to the point that i said enough is enough). So much BS i've gladly missed.

And now for the news:

So you're happily devouring the embarrassing antics of Jersey Shore when a commercial pops up and it feels like you've just stumbled into a nightclub. A nightclub where they play not thumping electronica but rather commercials for AXE body spray and Bud Light as loud as they possibly can.

This is the reality of American television, where marketers figured out long ago that one foolproof way to get people to pay attention to your TV ad is simply to give them no choice: Turn the volume up and they'll hear what you're hawking, even if they've gone to the kitchen for a snack or down the hall to the loo.

While electronics manufacturers have been attacking the problem with "volume leveling" technologies, the inevitable has now occured: Congress wants to get in on the act and force commercial volume down to a more reasonable level through the long arm of the law.

Congresswoman Anna Eshoo is up in arms, saying that loud commercials are basically ruining her life: "I not only dive for the mute button, but I end up having to close my windows so that the blast doesn't affect by neighbors. I live on a cul-de-sac, and so the sound resonates."

From Eshoo's noisy cul-de-sac has come a House bill that would prevent TV ads from being broadcast at a volume louder than the programs in which they appear. A Senate version called the Commercial Advertisment Loudness Migration Act of 2009 ("CALM," get it?) is also making the rounds. Eshoo's bill is expected to be taken up for vote today, and it looks like it could pass with ease. Eshoo says that she's "never carried a bill which has been received with so much enthusiasm. Only the do-not-call list has even come close."

It all sounds good, but naturally the question now arises whether Congress is overstepping its authority here. Mandating volume levels on television? Is this really what we elected our leaders to bother themselves with? Considering the massive support behind movements like the do-not-call list, well, maybe we did...

[Nagishkaw 510]

i haven't watched TV in something like 2 years... this was one of the reasons i stopped watching. The other reason was the news breaks between shows (i don't care what's coming up at 5, 5:30, 6 or 11 and hearing what is coming up over and over again ticked me off to the point that i said enough is enough). So much BS i've gladly missed.

You too, eh?

[slim 1,525]

I read about this today and I'm really glad our FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, you know, the big one in Washington, D.C., the one that takes all of our tax money and Social Security, Medicare, the one that runs the wars in Iraq AND Afghanistan, the one that is pretty much responsible for the security of the free world....

I'm glad they're going to stop commercials from being so loud. That should be right up there with immigration reform, health care reform, the wars on drugs, poverty, hunger, etc.

NO MORE LOUD TV!