Lucy Loose Nut

I'm sorry but I am losing the will to live. The adverts on TV over here are driving me insane especially the ads for DIY, computer stores, roofing etc because they just shout as loud as they can at you but the worst BY FAR!!!!!!! are the Harvey Norman ones!!! They literally scream at you every minute of every day and the volume seems a thousand decibels higher than even a dog could take . I'm surprised the whole of Australia haven't switched off in protest. I've honestly never seen anything like it before. Is there somewhere you can write to and complain? What do other people think?

Other than that I love Oz, am glad I'm here and the people are lovely

Amazulu

I refuse to shop at HN because of their ads.

DadAgain

PVR

Solved

(I should add that I dont know anyone who watches broadcast TV in Australia - the quality is so bad and advert saturation so pervasive that viewers have found alternative solutions, PVRs, HTPCs, illegal downloads etc etc. Obviously this reduce the number of viewers of adverts which reduces the amount of money in the industry, which reduces the amount spent on adverts, which make TV even more offensive - its a positive feedback loop and one that is not going to be fixed).

My advice? Get a nice fat internet connection and download ANYTHING you ever want to watch - dont use TV listings to determine what you're going to watch - use global TV review sites to determine 'whats hot' and grab a series. Doesnt matter if its broadcast for free on channel 7/9/10.. The quality will be better if downloaded illegally, the timetabling will be predictable, episodes will be played in the correct order and HN wont yell at you every 5 minutes.

carolinephillips

They do love to shout don't they?

I hate the fact that you often get the same ad shown at the beginning of the ad break and at the end.......OK if you have the attention span of the average goldfish, but how many times can they show the same ad in one evening for Pete's sake?!

Now I tend to put pause on and then go and make a cup of tea, so I can fast forward over the ads.

ProudVIC

Yes, they are pretty bad, but they have always been around. I remember people used to complain about them years ago but now most people just ignore them.

There are a lot of world class advertisements produced by Australian agencies as well and these make up the majority of the ads on television as they are made for the large multinational companies and international brands.

Most of the in your face, low budget ads are made for lesser companies, often local who probably don't budget that much for advertising, e.g Chris and Marie's plant world (small chain of nurseries in the Melbourne area), small local chains that sell things like roof tiles and flooring etc.

jothefw

Sorry but surely you LOVE the VB ones, especially during cricket! They are hilarious!

ponyrama

Yeh the VB ones are pretty funny. The Libra tampons one is just weird. And if I ever need to spend my last $2 on a belt.......I know where to go!

gmralston

I agree, they are terrible, it's just one of those things that does not seem to bother aussies.

Target do put a bit effort into their ads and coles ads are similar to tesco from what I can remember but most of the others are diabolical.

Oh and the radio too "Hellooooo frank walker from national tiiiiiles", this so annoying it really is, makes me want rip the radio at of the dash and throw it out of the window

Alfresco

I haven't noticed them TBH as I have Foxtel.

Just use the mute button when they come on until they go away.

Wol

If there's a movie I want to watch I save it on my hard disc and edit out the ads. Before the program starts to re-save the ad-less file you can see the red bits that are going to disappear - it's incredible how many and how long they are!

Amazulu

A US sitcom is approx 21mins long, so a 30min slot allows for 7-9mins of ads. In Australia the slot is often 35mins. Top Gear is 60mins long on BBC2. On Channel 9 it's 90mins.

DeadVim

I don't watch the movies at all unless I am drunk and time is an elastic concept.

To compound our TV issues our remote is broken so we tend to stick to a channel more ... or, increasingly, not watch mainstream TV and watch via downloaded stuff on a USB stick

Just watched the new Top Gear 'fastracked' from my hard drive and not 'super-sized' with ads

AlliF

What you mean you dont get 'so excited' by your tampons being wrapped up prettily, cos it makes all the difference you know! I won't buy them on principle.
And the rivers ads supplied by the most bored voices on the planet agency - i think they decided that they didnt like the ads that shouted at you either but decided to go too far the other way. Their stuff is rubbish anyway.

steve`o

agrred most are shite but in amongst the crap there are some absolutely hilarious ads the one that cracked me up the most the first time i watched it was the
"take care of your beaver"
add for tampons
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxkUE...ayer_embedded#!

DeadVim

Ah, but you remember the ad and what the company was ... job done for the advert ... crafty beggers ...