OT: Billy Mays Here

[Robatoy]

We had a few chuckles at his expense a few threads ago. Now Fark.com has gotten into the act...

[nailshooter41]

You have to wonder though... do any of his sponsors ever stop to think he just might be a LITTLE over exposed at this time?

I mean really, it was hard enough hearing him scream about OxyClean. But now he hawks anything from that garden weasel thing to life insurance.

Robert

[charlieb]

Thank the stars for Mute buttons. When someone yells at me to try and get me to buy a product - I - a) hit the Mute button, b) not the sponsors name and NEVER buy anything from them - ever.

We've got a local car dealership that uses a Scream and Shout guy

- hollering about their One Day Only Special Deal - day after day after day, week after week, month after month. What kind of credibility do they think they have?

Now the cave man ads - I try not to miss them.

charlie b

[Swingman]

"charlieb" wrote

What gets me about the local auto dealership commercials is the large number of fast walking people in the background ... where the hell are they ALL going in such a hurry, in such a small space?

Cheap psychological tricks are irksome ...

[Leon]

The yelling and screaming seems to attract the "num nuts" crowd. One of the largest if not the largest volume Chevy dealers in the world is in southwest Houston, it works for them. They attract people that qualify for

7 year 12% notes to the tune of between 600-800 vehicles per month.

[Leon]

I think they took too long to film for the amount of time they wanted to buy. 40 second clip squeezed into a 30 second slot. I have a DVD recorder that will play back slightly faster with out hindering the sound too much. IIRC you can shave 10% or so of viewing time in that mode.

[Larry]

charlieb wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Those share the hell out of my 1 year old grandson. Funniest damn thing... he runs as fast as he can to mama when they come on.

Larry

[RicodJour]

Wasn't it Magnavox with John Cleese as spokesperson that advertised an _automatic_ commercial volume "brake"? Their TVs would prevent the blaring of the commercial (obviously meant to catch your attention while you're in the kitchen or john trying to make good use of the commercial time). I haven't seen that advertised in a while - is it still around? Did the powers that be tell Magnavox to cut it out as it was cutting into their profits?

R

[Robatoy]

First of all, Magnavox (Philips) only built a 'detection' of an increase in dynamic range on the advertiser's signal. The total sound pressure was capped at the same dB level regardless if it was a signal from a show or an ad. However, the ad signal had a quieter/lower noise floor than the compressed sound of the crap they used to record TV shows. The ads 'sounded' louder, but in fact weren't. Now, with today's sound tracks, there is a lot of dynamic range in both commercials as well as the tracks which go with the sitcoms etc. So that little trick from Maganavox no longer works, unless you're watching DeJaVue 's reruns of Andy in Mayberry RFD AM/FM. Many commercials *are* preceded by a scrambled signal which triggers some kinda shit they use in broadcasting nowadays. Or so I'm told.

[Mortimer Schnerd, RN]

I think you're correct about Magnavox. I've been using one of these devices for years to do away with the puffed up volume of TV commercials:

[Swingman]

"Mortimer Schnerd, wrote

hear these guys tell it, they invented the process ... nothing but BS.

Same device, called a compressor/limiter, used in broadcast/recording studios the world over for the last 50 years, to keep mic/line levels from distorting the input circuitry of various pieces of sound equipment, tape decks, etc, and to keep broadcast signals in their assigned frequency spectrums by limiting the peak volume to specified level.

A compressor/limiter operates on the "dynamic range" (difference between the loudest and lowest passage) on a single sound, or on the entire mix/broadcast signal.

Basically, by decreasing/limiting the dynamic range of a mix, or a single sound in the mix, you can increase the peak volume of that mix/sound to the amount of compression applied, thereby making the compressed element(s) louder.

Like most human endeavors, it has been abused to the point of ridiculousness to gain advantages over other recordings/products, thus you see it overused to make commercial relatively louder than what preceded them.

Despicable practice ... in recorded music, it robs the listener/purchaser of one of the important elements that makes music a pleasurable experience, the dynamic range of the piece.

[Robatoy]

=2E..and I still get a kick out of people trying to tell me that their frequency response is flat down to 20 Hz...in their frickin' car!

[Mortimer Schnerd, RN]

As little as the producers of the noisy commercials may like it, they'd have liked my earlier solution even less: I muted the blaring instantly. Didn't listen to more than the first word or two. I believe in removing noxious stimuli.

[Tom Watson]

on television.

Actually, I think that O'Righty is the direct descendant of Joe Pine.

Billy Mays Here is the direct descendant of Ron Popeil, without the subtlety.

Regards, Tom.

Thos. J. Watson - Cabinetmaker

[David G. Nagel]

I like the new guy who is hawking the super adsorbent towel. He even acknowledges the camera.

Dave

[Lew Hodgett]

The thing that I remember about Joe Pine was how he spent the last months of his life after he was diagnosed with lung cancer.

It was a drastic turn around for the nicotine addicted Pine.

Lew

[Lee Gordon]

Yeah, unlike Billy Mays, that guy is watchable. But his sales pitch goes out the window when he says, "You're gonna spend $20 a month on paper towels anyway ..." Raise you hand if you shell out 240 bucks a year on paper towels.

Lee

[Rod & Betty Jo]

Sadly if you watch carefully (it was a slow night) when he pours coke on the carpet they cheat with the demo, spilled coke in front of the carpet magically disappears during the camera cutaways...when you can't trust your TV pitchmen you know the country has gone to hell. Rod

[cselby]

I spotted that same thing. And at the end of the commercial he says call within the next 20 min because we can't do this all day and get double the order. This ads been running for weeks. When does the 20 min actually end? I was going to call in 22 min and see if I could still get the doubled order but my wife took the phone away.

P

[David G. Nagel]

I never said that I trusted him, just that I liked him. I did notice the camera shift after the specifically instructed the camera guy to stay focused on the carpet.

What gets me is the insistence of these people (whomever they may be) that just because it (whatever it happens to be) is made in Europe it's superior to anything else.

Dave