A new trend in advertising gimmicks has really started to bother me lately – the practice of broadcasting “micro-ads” about one second in length, typically inserted just before a program returns from a commercial break. Sometimes they’re not even consciously recognizable, just a blip on the screen when watching in real time. It’s only when they’re played back on a DVR in frame-advance mode that they’re truly visible.
The first ads I noticed with ultra-fast “blips” were those for GE, sometime last year. They had a series of micro-scenes that made up what they called a “One-Second Theatre” feature at the very end of their regular commercial. The story line of this “theatre” production could only be seen when the commercial was paused on a DVR and advanced through the scenes, like the pages of a story-book. The stories were (not surprisingly) energy-related or promoted “green” technology.
In fact, it seems that proponents of the “Green Movement” have been the near-exclusive user of these subliminal ads. Currently, there’s an ad from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) about something called SmartWay. There was no clear indication in the ad exactly what SmartWay was, so of course I looked up the URL shown (just as they had hoped, I’m sure). As it turns out, the ad is for some new certification program for fuel-efficient vehicles. Mark my words — we’ll be inundated with this catch-phrase of a name and its distinctive logo very soon.
I’ve seen the ad numerous times, and they have become incrementally longer over the past six months or so. First it was just an indistinguishable flash, and now the ads have been lengthened so that you actually have time to register the word “SmartWay” and the logo consciously in real-time. I’ve never seen an actual “normal” ad for SmartWay that has an audio component – only the tiny, visual-only blurbs.
These particular ads bother me on several counts:
First and foremost, I think the Green Movement is something that’s being foisted on the general population by environmental activists. We hear their message from all directions now – we’re producing too many carbon emissions from factories and automobiles, we’re wasting energy by using too much gas or having inefficient heating and air conditioning systems in our homes, we’re not recycling enough, we’re not riding our bicycles or walking to work – the list goes on and on, but the message is the same: The planet is dying, and it’s our fault.
It’s presented as almost being a patriotic duty to be actively involved in “saving the planet” by recycling, buying a hybrid car or using less energy in some other way – and if we aren’t making an overt effort to do so, we’re somehow characterized as “bad citizens” or failing to be “team players” for not sacrificing something to support The Cause (see my previous post on global warming).
Also, these ads have so far been placed immediately before a program returns from commercial breaks. I believe this is an effort to capture viewership from those (like me) who fast-forward through normal ads. When the fast-forward feature is stopped and returned to normal speed to view the desired program, it “rewinds” (for lack of a better term) a couple of seconds to allow for the viewer to let go of the button and return to their show without overshooting the mark. It’s precisely during this lag time that the subliminal ad appears. Coincidence? I think not…
The bottom line of all this is that we’re being indoctrinated – there’s no other word for it. We’re slowly but surely having our minds programmed to accept the notion that we’re at fault for the planet’s ills, and it’s our duty to do something about it, no matter the economic cost or personal sacrifice. Can you say “brainwashing”?
I’m currently reading 1984 by George Orwell, and this smacks eerily of Big Brother and the tactics of the Party. And that scares me more than a little…
