I hate tear-jerker commercials

[Ginevra]

(Don’t take this complaint too seriously. I said “hate,” but it’s really just annoyance.) 

There’s some commercial on TV that’s something like “donate help to these heartbroken children who lost their military father.” It’s got sad piano chords playing and a mother with a quaking voice asking how she can hug all of her seven children at once...

There used to be a couple for abused pets that was similar. Play sad music, show clips of starving, shivering dogs or cats missing an eye. Plead for donations...

I find them so annoying and I’m not even actually *watching* it; I just hear it on in the background. Since I have seen the commercial once, I get all those images in my mind, even though I’m in the other room. 🙄

Do people donate to those things because, “Now that you broke my heart and made me feel like a privileged cow, here’s some money”? 

[Emba]

Yes, I hate those. It’s the feeling of being blatantly manipulated. But at least it’s for charity?

I hate even more the kind of commercials for a business or product that are designed to tug the heartstrings. Because then I’m being blatantly manipulated for profit. I’m looking at you, Super Bowl ads.

[Ausmumof3]

Yep.  Especially when I was pregnant because I’d literally end up crying...

[Tanaqui]

The ASPCA ad, aside from being super manipulative with all the abused animals, goes on forever. It's like ten straight minutes of sad dogs! They'd get more money from me if they showed a short clip of happily adopted dogs and cats and rabbits instead.

[EmseB]

The new Google ad about Loretta...I can't deal with it. 

Edited February 6, 2020 by EmseB

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, EmseB said:

The new Google ad about Loretta...I can't deal with it. 

I haven’t seen it, thank god.

[Emba]

3 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:

Yep.  Especially when I was pregnant because I’d literally end up crying...

Oh, I cry very easily, especially at certain times of the month ( multiple times, not just one). I don’t even have to be pregnant, or recently pregnant, to cry at commercials.

My mom told me once she cried reading The Velveteen Rabbit. It was right after my sister was born, and she said she knew it was some  hormonal thing. I cannot read the Velveteen Rabbit without choking up. It happens every. Single. Time. But I love that story.😆

[Mary in VA]

I hate emotionally manipulative commercials like the ASPCA one; I will actually change the channel. I like ones similar to Hallmark commercials that bring a tear to my eye.  That's what I thought of when I read the title of your thread and was ready to argue. But turns out no argument from me😀. The emotionally manipulative ones don't make me cry, they make me mad! I agree with Tanaqui, I might actually give if they showed happy dogs. Or maybe the contrast of a sick, sad dog and the same dog later, happy with a family.

 

Mary

[Katy]

I hate them too.  The ASPCA one was extremely offensive.  I hate them so much I got rid of cable, subscribed to Hulu Plus (without commercials), YouTube Premium (without commercials), and CBS Now (No commercials unless you're watching live).  At first it was annoying because I couldn't watch live events and had to wait 8-12 hours to watch them later.  But now many channels (Fox, ABC News, several others) have live coverage on their own Roku apps for free.  It's lovely to not have any idea what commercial people are talking about unless you saw it during the Superbowl or it was so great it started trending on YouTube.

[theelfqueen]

I was seriously about to post about the Loretta one..... ~~~weeping!~~

 

[Ausmumof3]

5 hours ago, emba56 said:

Oh, I cry very easily, especially at certain times of the month ( multiple times, not just one). I don’t even have to be pregnant, or recently pregnant, to cry at commercials.

My mom told me once she cried reading The Velveteen Rabbit. It was right after my sister was born, and she said she knew it was some  hormonal thing. I cannot read the Velveteen Rabbit without choking up. It happens every. Single. Time. But I love that story.😆

Oh yes.  This is partly why we had to quit with Sonlight!

[regentrude]

I hate all commercials. Which is one of the reasons I have been TV free since 1990. It was important to me that my kids, growing up, weren't exposed to them. (And with the streaming options nowadays, it's really easy)

Edited February 6, 2020 by regentrude

[Guest]

57 minutes ago, regentrude said:

I hate all commercials. Which is one of the reasons I have been TV free since 1990. It was important to me that my kids, growing up, weren't exposed to them. (And with the streaming options nowadays, it's really easy)

I wish it were really easy where I live. We still live in 1994-zone as far as internet options, lol! 

[Shoeless]

I turn those commercials off. I deeply, deeply appreciate and respect people doing any sort of animal rescue or shelter work.  They are made of far tougher stuff than I am.  I saw enough really sad cases working veterinary er, and I can't handle seeing any more of it. 😞 

Facebook is terrible with this sort of thing, too. People post and repost horrible animal abuse case info and pics, and it breaks my heart. 

[ktgrok]

14 hours ago, Quill said:

Do people donate to those things because, “Now that you broke my heart and made me feel like a privileged cow, here’s some money”? 

Sometimes. 

The old David Duchovny ones for Pedigree, about the dog in the shelter...oh my word. Those make me want to go adopt every dog I can, even years later, just thinking about them. And yes, I do still sometimes buy Pedigree products just because of those stupid emotional commercials. 

"...but I know that I'm a good dog; and I just want to go home."

😢https://youtu.be/KQ_vcv5I_KA

( I made sure to display as a link instead of embedding, in case y'all don't want to cry today. Or don't want to adopt all the dogs, lol)

[ktgrok]

9 hours ago, Mary in VA said:

I hate emotionally manipulative commercials like the ASPCA one; I will actually change the channel. I like ones similar to Hallmark commercials that bring a tear to my eye.  That's what I thought of when I read the title of your thread and was ready to argue. But turns out no argument from me😀. The emotionally manipulative ones don't make me cry, they make me mad! I agree with Tanaqui, I might actually give if they showed happy dogs. Or maybe the contrast of a sick, sad dog and the same dog later, happy with a family.

 

Mary

Ok, I said the David Duchovny ones get to me, but the ASPCA ones don't. I really dislike them - they are over the line. 

I think the David Duchovny Pedigree ones were less blatant somehow? I don't know, but much more effective since it's been years and years and I bought some pedigree canned food today because of them, lol. I don't even know if they still donate to shelters! But that poor dog who doesn't know why he ended up in the shelter....ugh. I'll hear that in my head the rest of my life. 

[Katy]

30 minutes ago, MissLemon said:

I turn those commercials off. I deeply, deeply appreciate and respect people doing any sort of animal rescue or shelter work.  They are made of far tougher stuff than I am.  I saw enough really sad cases working veterinary er, and I can't handle seeing any more of it. 😞 

Facebook is terrible with this sort of thing, too. People post and repost horrible animal abuse case info and pics, and it breaks my heart. 

 

If you click the menu to the upper right of the posts you can choose to hide all posts from that shelter.  Most people who do this only post from 2-3 in their area or for their preferred breed.  It doesn't take long to make those posts rare.

I also do this for third party political posts and click bait type sites in general. I think it might confuse Facebook's algorithm because I sometimes don't see new posts for a couple days, but it makes the whole service much more pleasant.