Ads Gone Wild

I have a little quirk.

Okay, I have many little quirks. Today I want to rant about CC. Yes, Closed Captioning. I like to have it on. I like reading, and sometimes the CC is so awful it is amusing. There is the bonus of irritating people who are distracted by this, but that pales in comparison to the enjoyment I get from the atrocious mistakes CC writers make, especially on live broadcasts.

The other day, though, I stumbled across a disgusting recent addition to some CC broadcasts. Ads. Yes, ads. For now, they seem to be confined to the end of shows, but I am still offended. The CC runs on most ads during shows, usually with far greater accuracy than the shows themselves. It is unnerving to have my CC broadcast suggest I buy Toyota, or to pick a direction and go, as long as it is forward.

I know from the shows I watch online that advertising is going to follow us everywhere. I tune them out as best I can. I do think we need to draw the line on the insidiousness somewhere, and that needs to be at placing ads in the closed captioning text.