Saturday, January 13, 2024

Getting needled

I've made a deal with YouTube. I don't use any kind of ad-blocking software. Videos have ads running before most of the time. I'll let them play out and at least pretend to pay attention, most of the time. If the ad approaches or surpasses the one minute mark, though, I'm likely to skip it. Or if it's particularly annoying, then all bets are off.

Botox ads are generally in this second category. And I'm not sure who they think their customer is here. I don't want to look younger. Looking older actually gets me a modicum of respect, at least most of the time.

2 comments:

susan said...

You may be one of the lucky few who take some amusement from the cultural decline shown in commercials. I just can't tolerate them at all in any scenario. I used to amuse myself by looking at the Daily Mail until they closed the site to anyone who has an adblocker program running. So I looked it up on Safari (no adblocker) only to see the ads were so unrelenting the paper was unreadable.

Botox is a toxin made from the same stuff that causes botulism. It was first developed in order to help people with cerebral palsy to not twitch so much - then they discovered it prevented wrinkles and forgot about the CP patients. I bet that's a fact they don't mention on the commercials.

I don't mind looking older either, the respect comes from staying sharp.

Ben said...

"Cultural decline"? Harsh, but fair. Ads can certainly be annoying, especially the five-zillionth time you've been asked to sit through them. Of course the audio portion is the real irritant. Only rarely do the images that float by have much effect one way or the other. So sometimes it's healthy to hit the mute button.

The Botox ads are just talking head segments featuring yuppie morons, the sort of Xanax swilling ghouls who are left with all the official Manhattan addresses nowadays. So it would be funny if someone mentioned this was basically food poisoning only worthwhile for treating the badly disabled, but the ad wizards would only edit it out.

If respect comes from staying sharp I'll take it. Used to notice more of a "they hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool" dynamic.