For those of us who still watch TV real time (sometimes), there’s good news coming in from Washington.
It’s about to be mandated that the volume of commercials be comparable to the volume of the show they appear during. That means no more having to clap your hands over your ears when a car commercial suddenly ups the volume to deafening levels in order to try to get your attention.
According to an article published at local DC station WUSA 9’s website:
The Senate unanimously passed a bill late Wednesday to require television stations and cable companies to keep commercials at the same volume as the programs they interrupt.
The House has passed similar legislation. Before it can become law, minor differences between the two versions have to be worked out when Congress returns to Washington after the Nov. 2 election.
Apparently, advertisers still think getting people’s attention by any means necessary still works. Thankfully, this legislation will take away one of their more annoying weapons in that arsenal. Maybe now they’ll actually try to do more of what actually seems to work: making more interesting commercials. (See Old Spice or the equally viral Never Say No to Panda commercials for some good ideas, heck, even the classic Budweiser frogs got the job done without making us deaf!)
Now if only someone could come up with a way to make locally produced commercials not look like they were made 20 years ago…
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