American Reacts to UK vs USA Ads!

[@Codex7777]

No, British tv doesn't have 'less ads'. It has FEWER ads! :)

[@spiggyholz8824]

Came here to say exactly the same thing.

[@julianaylor4351]

@@Codex7777 My late father taught English...hooray for grammar used properly.

[@shinycaterpie4443]

@@julianaylor4351 Except fewer isn't really "grammar used properly" any more than less is. People saying less instead of fewer is incredibly common and what determines the "correct" use of a language is it's widespread use. Both are correct

[@RCassinello]

"Fewer" only works for countable quantities. As adverts can be any length, and any number can make up the total permissible length of advertising, "Less" is the grammatically correct statement.

[@Codex7777]

@@RCassinello Who said anything about the length of ads??? It's clearly a reference to the number of ads...

[@helenwood8482]

The economy doesn't need ads. UK businesses do fine with a lot fewer ads. In fact, I have a rule that I will not buy any product whose ads interfere with my viewing unless the ad is entertaining.

[@Lfc23911]

I have a similar rule where if they use a popular song and change the lyrics (see Halifax building society for the last 30 years and 'Queen' selling their songs like they're going out of fashion) I will not buy/sign up for the product.

[@Jill-mh2wn]

I have a similar rule to charities .If they can afford TV ads they don`t need my money

[@RCassinello]

And if you need proof - when the UK banned tobacco advertising, all the major tobacco producers saw an immediate boost in profits. Why? Because they no longer had to pay for stupid competitive adverts.

[@RCassinello]

I agree with that ethos. I've made it a point for over 30 years to not buy anything I've seen advertised. Which must be particularly heart breaking for cookie writers, as I always accept cookies in the hope that all their needless tracking of me will finally, maybe, one day, show me an advert for something I actually fucking want. Not happened yet, but I live in hope....

[@RCassinello]

@@Jill-mh2wn If they can afford billionaire popstars like Paul McCartney to advertise, then they're out for me.

[@markalexander3659]

British TV has WAY WAY WAY less ads. When I was in the U.S. I flat-out could not watch TV at all as it was unbearable. They literally have an ad break every like 4-6 minutes. It totally ruined trying to watch anything.

[@daveaglasgow]

I totally disagree, having lived in Canada and getting mainly American TV as they get both American and Canadian TV, the adverts happened far more often, but the length of the ads is far shorter. So if you watch the same show over here on any channel, except from bbc , say csi, it lasts an hour before the next show, the shows both have an hour of play and they both start at the same time, you will get the next episode starting at the same time. Basically the adverts are far more often, but far shorter. We get 4/5 minutes, and sometimes watching movies on some channels we get 8 minutes for one ad break, but in America you get just a couple of minutes per ad break.

[@lukemorris4065]

@@daveaglasgowhow can you get into the story/show when there’s adverts every minute. It’s why American sports are never successful outside of America.

[@samuel-wankenobi]

In the US it's crazy they have one after the show's intro and then in the middle and before the credits in the UK we only have them in the middle

[@adrianboardman162]

I was in Vegas and watching The Hunger Games. The amount of ads took it from about 2 1/2 - 3 hours to just over 4, and the ads kicked at crucial moments so you lost track of the plot.

[@dam_ly]

@@lukemorris4065 That and the fact that american football is a one hour game that take three hours to play!

[@adamaalto-mccarthy6984]

We can buy big bags of crisps (chips) in the UK but we can also buy multipacks.

[@beverleyringe7014]

Quite agree, yes we do have large sharing bags,

[@brigidsingleton1596]

My daughter buys big bags of Pickled Onion Monster Munch (for me), as they're _corn_ / _maize_ snacks - as my _potato_ intake is _restricted_ due to them being bad for my failing kidneys...😢)

[@brian_jackson]

@@beverleyringe7014 Yes, we have both here in Belgium too. But Britain has more flavours. Here most are pickles, paprika or just salt. No cheese and onion ever.

[@AndrewJonesMcGuire]

"The red car and the blue car had a race" - if you are old enough, you will know that advert - and now have a song stuck in your head. You are welcome 😉😉

[@thedivinemrm5832]

Darn you! **shakes fist**

[@Lapinporokoira]

I don't like the chocolate

[@AndrewJonesMcGuire]

@@Lapinporokoira milky way's are awesome - well, they used to be anyway

[@KirstinDisney1990]

Wow didn't see this when I commented!!! Yum need to go but some tomorrow now 😂😂😂😂

[@Morganlefay789]

Aaaaaaaarrrrrgh ! Nooooooo. Well I hope that you are happy now 😡😡😡 Like an ear worm 😅😅😅

[@bujler]

One thing about product placement. The song "Lola" by the Kinks was banned by the BBC. Not because it's about a transvestite, but because one of the lyrics mentioned "Coca Cola". So, it had to be rerecorded to change the lyric to "Cherry Cola"

[@seancooper4058]

We love some Tom Scott

[@TheBlackcredo]

I was talking about this earlier with my partner.

[@RCassinello]

I thought it was "S O D A soda"?

[@cityseabird]

I grew up in Hull, so we’d get the national news in Received Pronunciation, such as it was by the 80s, then “now from the news, in your area… Hiya dahlin! Err nerr, you ant gorra go owt us there’s a meerdreh in yer ten foot! Peter Levy, Look North.”

[@JRCE-stef68]

I used to love the milky way song... The red car and the blue car... From the 80s... I know the words to that still.

[@RCassinello]

13:00 The irony being that Jay makes his adverts the BEST adverts you will ever see. They are memorable BECAUSE he makes such an effort to make them like the old UK model.

[@dianemckeefry5637]

We definitely have local adverts for regional TV in the UK, we have local sofa and furniture shop sales amongst many others.

[@brian_jackson]

You do? That I think is a newer thing. It could be because the internet has driven down the price of TV advertising.

[@dianemckeefry5637]

Not a new thing, it's been like that for as long as I have been alive. Local TV presenters usual do them.

[@kristinbeynon2839]

You can now get regionalised adverts on TV. I get some in Suffolk, UK. We get one for a hotel up the road.

[@gerrymccabe7912]

Here in Australia, you get asked in the pharmacy if you want the branded product or the cheaper generic product which is the exact same.

[@Flirkann]

And typically because unless the Doc has explicitly marked No Substitutions, they've only written down the branded product (e.g Epilim) because it can be easier than recalling the active ingredient (Sodium Valporate), and the generic gets the full benefit of the PBS

[@dianeshelton9592]

The NHS insists that off generic medicines are used instead of the branded ones. Unless the branded tablets is as cheap as the generic drug

[@blackcountryme]

It used to happed in the UK if you had a good chemist cos the basic stuff was cheaper than brand named

[@laurencefraser]

In NZ you will get prescribed the generic one, and you will get given the generic one, and you will pay nothing for the medicine (though you Will pay for the GP visit to get the perscription, and even subsidised that's often not particullarly cheap)... unless you specifically get your doctor to prescribe a non-generic one and specify that it not be substituted (occasionally necessary due to the generic one containing, say, some sort of milk or soy product while the branded one doesn't. Not common, but it does happen). At which point you will get the branded medicine, and you will pay for it (not sure if you pay full price or just the difference though.) Which is amusing, as New Zealand allows direct to consumer advertising of medications... but where the USA has this long list of warnings, disclaimers, etc., in NZ it just says 'ask your doctor if X is right for you'... and then you do... and 99+% of the time the doctor says 'no'. And that's the end of it. And the doctor already knows about the ones that have the budget for advertising. (this is because in the USA the pharmacutical companies can bribe or extort doctors (or their bosses) into prescirbing unnecessary or suboptimal things for nonsense reasons to push sales. In NZ, that would get everyone involved into a lot of legal trouble. Though with current shortages of doctors making it easier than it should be for doctors who just aren't very good to still see a steady stream of patients they might be able to get away with a bit of that these days if they were sufficiently low key about it...) On the other hand, if you have some rare problem with some niche treatment, you often need to do the research yourself and then take that to the doctor, because they've often never heard of it... but they do have the knowledge and resource base to, once you've drawn their attention to it, actually look into it and determine if it's actually relevant, useful, not a nonsensical scam or incompatible with your other issues, etc. ... but that stuff's never advertised on TV.

[@JulieLevinge]

Thatcher actually saved NHS a lot by making perciptions generic only had to supply same drug but in its cheapest form. Caused loads of problems when it first started remember a drug for sleeping pharma company had an eye asleep on it but generic didn’t? People swore they were different drugs😀

[@andysadler6432]

everyone has less ads than usa and all non usa sports are in halves rather than quarters as our sport isnt designed round getting more adverts in

[@Anonyomus_commenter]

Wait American football is in quarters? Also, in fairness cricket usually has more than two halves because it can last so long.

[@bobhale7302]

Does NFL stillhave "sponsors" timeouts? To someone in the UK the idea of an advertiser being able to stop the game seems ridiculous.

[@charlottehardy822]

Polo, tennis, badminton, snooker, darts… sorry I couldn’t resist 😂

[@rorymcdonald7022]

Aussie rules is in quarters... Pretty sure this his nothing to do with advertising though.

[@watcherzero5256]

@@rorymcdonald7022 Yeah Aussie football has been in quarters since the start, it was done that way to manage extra time because Australian football took so long to restart the game after scoring, it was easier to have the extra time after each 20 min quarter than all at the end.

[@Phiyedough]

In the days when there were local businesses advertising on British TV I remember one for a furniture shop called Lee Longlands. They had a slogan "Leave it to Lee Longlands". I always thought it would be fun to round up a bunch of friends to act as prospective customers. They would each go in there, ask about a sofa or something, get shown some products, say "It's OK, I'll leave it" and walk out without buying anything.

[@julianaylor4351]

When I was at art college in South Wales during the early 1980s, the ITV channels ( HTV West and HTV Wales ) showed agricultural adverts, like cattle worming products. 😁 You can get sharing bags in the UK, but they are smaller than US ones, because single small packets and multi packs are more popular.

[@benstradling7615]

Here in Wales we do have our own Welsh language TV channel and targeted Welsh company advertising along with the other UK wide ads

[@owenfitzgerald5928]

Yeah s4c i am from N.Ireland but watched s4c to follow the Welsh national football team lol and we have some Irish ones like TG4 and RTE

[@Lfc23911]

I'm from Liverpool and back in the days of aerial-only telly, a lot of us couldn't get Channel 4 we could only get S4C - confused the hell out of me when I was waiting for Brookside :D

[@brian_jackson]

@@Lfc23911 Did it have English subtitles on Teletext?

[@AlexByth]

ITV and Channel 4, and possibly Channel 5, still have advertising regions. Channel 4 doesn't even have regional programming variations, but it still splits the country up into six regions for advertising.

[@johnrussell5245]

Advertisers often release a commercial in one region to test it, then if it has a good response they'll roll it out nationally. If the response is not so good they might make changes before they test it again.

[@yedead1]

Think sky is starting to release local ad's saw an ad for a local car dealership (Northwood Garage) a few months on the discovery channel, it had to have been a local ad because this particular dealership is in Northwood village and only locals really know about it.

[@onecupof_tea]

In uk there is a regulation that television companies can only show ads for Seven minutes every hour, so approx every half hour you will aee ads for a few minutes.

[@davidhines7592]

we used to have local program in the south of england called out of town which was hosted by jack hargreaves and was about rural things that were being lost or how they used to be done before combine harvesters. it was a quiet reflective kind of program. would be a nice change from the supersonic speed type of tv we have now.

[@tony1kenobi929]

Please react to old UK tango ads, they'll make you laugh and stare at your screen in utter disbelief at the same time

[@brian_jackson]

In the UK there really aren't very local ads on TV, but - in cinema there are - or there used to be when I lived there. Like advertising a restaurant, like "Maharaja, genuine Indian cuisine within walking distance of this cinema, open until midnight". They were obviously low budget but kind of quaint. I don't know if they still do it. I am guessing not.

[@Shoomer88]

No ads at all on the BBC but of course, you pay for the privilege. But then again you pay for Sky Sports and still get loads of ads.

[@noggintube]

Not just the BBC. We pay for the privilege to watch all live broadcasts, whatever the channel.

[@scottneil1187]

No ads and nothing worth watching.

[@Sofasurfa]

⁠@@scottneil1187 that’s your opinion, I have different one, there is a lot I like on the BBC but it’s all a matter of preference.

[@listerofsmeg884]

Maybe not for Thickos 🤷​@@scottneil1187

[@listerofsmeg884]

That's what's amusing about BBC /licence fee bashers. Complain about 13 pounds a month but have no problem forking out 3 times that for Sky TV 🤣

[@billyhills9933]

The strangest variation of adverts was when I was moving back and forth between England and Scotland. There was the same advert shown in both countries for the Army, soldiers doing soldiery things, with a voice over. In England, it was an English accent and was about becoming a British soldier. In Scotland, it was a Scottish accent and was about becoming a Scottish soldier.

[@riverraven7359]

The accent change makes sense but are Scots really that offended to be called British? (Calling them English I could understand would piss them off)

[@Spiklething]

@@riverraven7359 The latest Scottish census results from 2022 were published a few weeks ago. This showed that *two thirds* of people in Scotland consider themselves Scottish but not British.

[@steveshephard1158]

Growing up in the 70's, I lived in the Midlands and my grandparents lived in Yorkshire, at home we got Ansells' Bitter Men adverts and in Yorkshire the same adverts but for Tetley's Bitter Men.

[@Deano-Dron81]

@@SpiklethingThat’s fair. Some English people hate being clumped into being called British, but they don’t have a choice. If you’re English specifically, you’re called British automatically. Scot’s and Welsh people are often referred to by their country but the English aren’t so much.

[@davidmellish3295]

​@@SpiklethingWell it doesn't matter if they don't consider themselves British the FACT is THEY ARE BRITISH, if you're English, Scottish or Welsh then you're British whether you like it or not 😅 I can call myself a teapot but it doesn't automatically make me a teapot.

[@TerenceDixon-l6b]

We do have large bags of crisps (chips), the smaller bags in a large pack of 6 means that if you don't want to eat a huge bag, the remainder doesn't go soft.

[@TheWebcrafter]

15:35 - PAS DEVANT LES ENFANTS (Not in Front of the Children) - I recall there being a restriction on the volume of 'toy' ads that were permitted to be broadcast during Saturday morning children's television. Parents were getting fed up with their kids incessantly bugging them for all those toys. Remember how often you'd hear the Toys 'R' Us jingle? 'There's a magical place, where everyone goes...' SHADDUP! However, there was no restrictions on the length of cartoons. So toy companies would sponsor the creation of animated shows that contained the good guy versus the baddie. E.g. He-Man vs Skeletor, Autobots vs The Decepticons, M.A.S.K. vs V.E.N.O.M. But it wasn't just one character vs another. No, it was always multiple goodies versus multiiple baddies. And by sheer coincidence, the stores would already be filled with toys based uopn a new cartoon series that had only been released that day. In fact, all these cartoons were simply half-hour long toy ads that circumvented the law restricting ad volume to children.

[@pipoo1]

Fraggle Rock was also in effect a coproduction of CBC Canada and TVS (ITV) in the UK. The UK version has a whole different lighthouse keeper and different opening titles.

[@BenRattigan]

There are still localised adverts albeit far fewer. An obvious example being railway companies as there is little point in Northern Rail running adverts in South West England .

[@KevFrost]

6:52 we have both multipacks of single serving packs and sharing bags.

[@Sofasurfa]

Oh have we still got those I commented that I hadn’t seen any recently, at least not in my local Tescos.

[@littlemy1773]

Is it just me, or do the larger bags seem to contain less crisps and a lot more air than smaller ones ?

[@alistairmcclure493]

We do have regional advertising on Scotland's version on ITV (STV). Many of the low budget ads are voiced by Scottish Television continuity announcers.

[@onbedoeldekut1515]

We _do_ have 'local' ad's, but they're only shown in cinemas, you'll generally see something for a nearby curry house or veterinary service.

[@brian_jackson]

I remember those. I was wondering if those are still a thing (I don't live there anymore). I remember Pearl and Dean. I remember the tune.

[@onbedoeldekut1515]

@@brian_jackson The last time _I_ went, only a couple of years ago, they still played them here in Cornwall. It _is_ a bit 'Slaughtered Lamb' down here, though.

[@wivenhoeessex]

A 60-minute BBC programme was 80 minutes in the US once adverts had been added so the BBC struggled to sell in the US market. They now make programmes run for 45 minutes to allow the US to add adverts making it easier to sell in the US. A good example is David Attenborough natural history programmes. In the UK they have a 15 minute behind the scenes segment added to fill a 60 minute slot.

[@catherinerobilliard7662]

I thought it was only 10 minutes but those how they shot a particular scene are fascinating. When I was in the US I noticed the David Attenborough nature series often had a different number of episodes, so I guess all those “how we shot the scene” made an extra one, except the last series, as the episode warning about pollution and plastics on land and in the ocean wasn’t included for some reason.

[@AlexByth]

The thing Jay didn't really explain is that until the early 1990s, all the regional ITV franchise regions were in the gift of the government and if you owned a franchise you couldn't sell it, you could only hand it back to the government. This changed in the 1990s, and of course what happened was that the bigger companies started buying out the smaller ones and now there are only two - STV owns the two Scottish franchises and ITV plc owns the rest. And STV and ITV work so closely together that they may as well be one company. They still have a legal requirement to provide some regional programming, but they only do the bare minimum that they absolutely have to.

[@Ramtamtama]

UTV is also in that group, being the Northern Ireland branch

[@Sofasurfa]

And being a grumpy old woman I preferred it the old way. I liked all the regional oddities.

[@bareakon]

I did always wonder why as a kid my parents always called ITV "Anglia" Now I know it was just a holdover from when our ITV was the East Anglian regional franchise.

[@watcherzero5256]

@@bareakon There was also a lot of variation with the larger richer franchises such as Anglia and Grenada (North West) and Carlton (London) producing most of the blockbuster programs which would also be shown in the the smaller regions a few days later in a different slot. The smaller regions also got more repeats and less original content.

[@alibob1986]

@@bareakon We had Anglia tv too. I did notice many years ago that nothing ever said Anglia tv afterwards but didn't know why until today. Every day is a school day!

[@billyhills9933]

Back in the 90s BBC2 would have a scifi section on at 6 o'clock which would consist of two (American) hour long programmes but because they didn't show ads, they were able to fit them into an hour and a half and then continue with their evening programming from seven thirty. They did clip them sometimes, which is why I missed the opening song from the Buffy musical episode. Speaking about Buffy, they would show an episode in the 6pm slot and then repeat it at 1am. The early morning one was always slightly longer, and one time sadly, I watched the same episode, on video, to see the differences. Basically, the fight scenes were cut down on the daytime episode, sometimes quite drastically. If you ever watch a show like this and a fight happens and then it seems to jump a couple of shots, often confusingly, then it's the daytime version.

[@paulqueripel3493]

I remember seeing one Buffy episode where it wasn't the fight scene that was cut. The monster's eyes came out on stalks to kill the victim, in the daytime version you didn't see that.

[@JKK_85]

Businesses often actually come to like advertisement bans, they nearly always report increased profits as sales don't dip and they're not paying for ads.

[@laurencefraser]

The thing about advertising, is that on the whole it absolutely works... but most individual instances of it don't, or at least not well. type of advertising, type of product, platform/media type etc. all play into it... and most types are wildly overvalued by everyone involved in figuring out how much money it should cost. In my case basically the only advertising that gets me to go buy things is the paper flyer in the letter box, or e-mail equivalent from one particular online shop (which breaks those e-mails up by product catagory such that you're only getting them for things you've actually indicated interest in and not subsequently opted out of).... and even then it's not a 100% hit rate... It seems like, for the most part 'this business exists in your area and does this kind of work' type advertising, intended to ensure you remember that they're there the next time it's relevant to you, seems to be the most consistently useful, though how Valueable it is, who knows? So, when the advertising gets banned, you knock off an expense for the business, and most of them don't actually loose anything until the effect of their previous 'we exist!' ads fade, which, depending on the business type, customer base, and local competition, can take quite a while.

[@norb0254]

I can correct you on ads ..I am in glasgow and it is rare but i was suprised when ads came on itv /stv and it was the local car dealer ,and i was thinking surely that cant be national

[@OspreyChick]

Autoglass is called Carglass in Spain, and the jingle is “Carglass cambia, Carglass repara”.

[@PPfilmemacher]

In Germany its also Carglass, and the German jingle is „Carglass repariert, Carglass tauscht aus“ [Carglass repairs, Carglass exchange]

[@OspreyChick]

I think that J used Carglass when he sang the French version too.

[@Justinian-IV]

It's also Carglass in Italy.

[@gwaptiva]

I find it intriguing that in countries where the word for automobile is "car" the company appears to be called "Autoglass", but in countries where you say "auto(mobile)" the company is called Carglass... And then there's the Americans...

[@OspreyChick]

@@gwaptiva it is strange. But automobile is old-fashioned. In Spain it’s coche, in France, voiture, but auto would work in both. It’s marketing speak where non English-speaking countries use English words to sound trendy and, as a translator, I can assure you that they don’t always get it right.

[@RCassinello]

11:00 It was even stricter than Jay recalls here - No one who appeared in the show was allowed to be in ANY adverts during or immediately surrounding the same show lest they be considered to be endorsing the product to their own direct fans.

[@TheWebcrafter]

11:32 - Yes, I recall when UK began mentioning the sponsor of the upcoming TV show. I believe Inspector Morse was the first show to mention the sponsor. It was Beamish Ale, by the way, because Morse would always be seen drinking a pint of beer on the show. Here's what happened.... The 'ITV' (Independent Television) channel went bust, or close enough. So, to quickly drum up new sources of revenue, TV shows were permitted to have direct sponsorship. This enabled sponsors to gain ad space, outside of the usual ad spots by attaching their messages to every 'ad break' outro and intro. I believe a caveat was that the usual ad spots must contain an ad which was a direct competitor to the sponsor of a TV show. Example... 'The Simpsons' would 'break' for the ad spots with an intro & outro 'sponsored by Dominos Pizzas' message. However, when the ad spot began, the first ad was for 'Pizza Hut'. I always wondered why a TV show sponsor would accept that direct competitor was permitted to advertise a similar product during the ad breaks of their sponsored TV show. Over time I noticed it happening on many other TV shows.

[@dalebrown325]

Scottish Television(STV) is one of the ITV branches and it definitely has Scotland specific adverts. Not only that, we still very much make and show our own programs.

[@pipoo1]

The Muppet Show was indeed a UK production it was produced by ATV and aired on the ITV network.

[@corringhamdepot4434]

In the UK multipacks are very popular, as they are cheaper than buying individual bags. When you are making up school lunch boxes, or giving the kids a sensible sized snack. UK Pal TV comes with 625 lines of resolution, whereas NTSC has only 525. So Pal is a higher resolution.

[@stephenlee5929]

Most Multi-packs have smaller individual packs than the normal individual packs, which is why they often have a label on the individual items which states they are not to be sold separately

[@spacechannelfiver]

Console gaming used to be absolutely hosed more often than not in Europe, it had ugly letterboxes, the sprites were squashed and it ran 15% slower - including stuff like the music.

[@jonisilk]

TV in America is wall-to-wall commercials, with occasional programmes interupting the flow. This was true when I first went there in 1994 and it seems nothing has changed since.

[@Jamie_D]

Why would limiting adverts be limiting the economy? No one watches the shit these days anyway, the companies like to just keep wasting millions on ads for nothing

[@kerryannestevenson6099]

They’re a cue to put the kettle on.

[@stephenlee5929]

Most punters/viewers believe they are not affected by adverts, and always have done. Strange that companies still waste their money on them.

[@Anonyomus_commenter]

@@stephenlee5929It’s subconscious- you can be biased to have a better view of a company through advertising

[@Varksterable]

​@@OneTrueScotsmanPhysical ad waste is so annoying. I'm trying to think of a way of throwing it all back at them. Maybe we can beat this.

[@iainsan]

Just by making people aware of a product's existence (or to remind them of it) brings companies billions. You may not watch them, but millions do and they must make money for companies otherwise they wouldn't bother with the expense.

[@rowanoraclereadings]

I remember back in the day on UK terrestrial TV, the screen would show a small cube of black and white lines in the top right hand corner to indicate that an ad break was coming up. I'm not sure why, perhaps it was to do with the clear ad/programming separation that Jay talks about.

[@spiritusinfinitus]

I was once asked by a PR agency to go in London to sit around in a swanky building somewhere near Soho drinking free beer, snacks with a bunch of strangers, and they wanted my opinions on a storyboard that a advertising company was putting together for an advert selling a car. They literally showed us some black and white sketches of things like a car being transported by a train through a valley and asked us how it made us feel, and what we got from the image. They were really going for borderline conscious subtleties. They gave me an envelope with £100 in fresh notes and a slight beer buzz.

[@johnrussell5245]

That's called a 'focus group'.

[@spiritusinfinitus]

@@johnrussell5245 I certainly wasn't particularly focussed! lol

[@Varksterable]

@@spiritusinfinitus That's the point. Duh.

[@spiritusinfinitus]

@@Varksterable I won't go into specific details here, but "the point" certainly wasn't part of the equation. You see, several people there, myself included, weren't the people that the people organising the event were expecting. Let's just say, the advertisers were themselves being scammed by people at the PR agency. 😁

[@NotoriousATC]

TV Advert jingles? In no particular order: # Um Bongo (the full song) # McCains (hope it's chips!) # R Whites (secret lemonade drinker) # Pepsi (step to the counter - Kirk St Moritz R.I.P.) # Kelloggs Bran Flakes (very very tasty)

[@grabannon]

Ariston and on and on, Scotch Re-record don't fade away...

[@Sofasurfa]

My little brother was obsessed with the PG Tips ads, he used to run into the room to watch them, my favourite was the Smash ads 😊

[@tonyhughes9741]

TV commercials are why the TV series 24 (theoretically 24 hours) actually only lasted for 18 hours when seen in the UK on the BBC or on the DVD box sets.

[@klaxoncow]

There's an argument that this is why it's worth paying the TV licence fee. Because that pays for the BBC, who have a bunch of completely ad-free channels. And this means that ITV, Channel 4 and all the rest of the commercial TV channels that do have ads can't get away with having too many ads. Because if they get too annoying with the ads then, screw you, I'm going to watch the BBC where there are no ads. Thus, the argument is that having "the public option" there - even if you never make use of it - is still beneficial to you, in setting a minimum standard and expectation that the commercial / private providers also have to match. For example, in the UK, as well as the NHS, we do also have commercial healthcare providers. If you have the money then you can get private healthcare insurance with, for example, BUPA (biggest and most famous non-NHS healthcare provider). The NHS is NOT the only option in the UK. But it's the public option. The "safety net" that's universally available to everyone. But if you're feeling rich and want to pay for health insurance with a private healthcare provider, then you absolutely can. No laws or anything against it. But here's the subtle argument. The existence of the NHS makes BUPA better. Because, with BUPA, they're more expensive but they're very, very price-competitive compared to American healthcare providers. In America, we constantly hear about people being under-insured - you pay your insurance, but then, when you claim on it, you find it's useless. Doesn't cover this, doesn't cover that. They just won't pay out. Okay, look up BUPA - who are a private healthcare provider - and try to find similar nightmare stories of them refusing to pay out, or under-insuring people. Rare to non-existent. BUPA cannot afford to be seen as a bad deal. Because everyone is entitled to just walk out and walk into an NHS hospital instead. BUPA are known for luxury. You pay for your own room, personal nurse, no waiting lists. Yeah, you're paying more but they treat you like a king. Because they have to. If what BUPA offered was worse than the NHS then absolutely no-one would ever use them - as you can always walk into an NHS hospital instead. They cannot be worse. They have to be, at minimum, as good as the NHS or better than them. Or why waste your money, if there's better, for free, right over there? And this is the subtle argument. Even if you never use the NHS and never watch the BBC, the existence of "the public option" keeps the private options honest. They cannot be worse than the public option. It sets "the minimum standard". No private healthcare provider can enter the UK market and offer less or worse than the NHS... or people would walk out and walk straight into an NHS hospital instead. In the UK, thanks to the existence of the BBC, we have far less ads. Even on the commercial channels. We also have lots of original programming. Because the BBC produces original content, on multiple channels, 24 hours a day. It's a famous joke in the UK to complain about "repeats" being shown on the telly. There's even a Del Amitri song - "nothing ever happens" - that has that as a lyric: "While 'Angry from Manchester' writes to complain about all the repeats on TV". People complain about repeats on TV because the BBC set the standard of original programming that we don't expect to see the same programme twice. And even the commercial channels - like ITV and Channel 4 - have a very, very healthy amount of home-grown original programming. When Rupert Murdoch tried to break into British television with Sky, he couldn't understand why the usual formula of hundreds of "repeats channels" wasn't working as awesomely in the UK as it does elsewhere (such as "Star" in Asia, which is nothing but repeats of American syndicated shows). Indeed, Sky TV eventually worked it out and started making its own original programming: Stella, League of their Own, etc. because they understood that, in the British market, people are used to the BBC and ITV showing ORIGINAL PROGRAMMING. Brand new shows. All day, every day. Even if you never use "the public option", recognise that it should exist. Because the public option keeps the private option honest, and the private option keeps the public option efficient. Win / Win. Indeed, I'd say that you should have both simultaneously, or you will suffer either way.

[@johnrussell5245]

I think the licence fee is incredible value. £13 a month for 24 hour ad-free TV on 4 channels-plus radio.

[@super_ted_7371]

​​@@johnrussell5245you don't need a licence for the radio stations.

[@johnp8131]

@@super_ted_7371 True but the licence goes towards paying for the BBC radio stations.

[@scottneil1187]

Pity the BBC sucks, there's nothing good on it.

[@phoenix-xu9xj]

Nobody reads posts this long.

[@danmaudsley3778]

Missed out that our biggest TV channel, BBC One, has no ads at all - same for all BBC TV and radio stations in the UK.

[@TheWebcrafter]

13:00 - AD MAN PRESSURE - I recall a story told by Rod Serling regarding a US TV show which featrured a British naval boat during WW2. In one scene, the script reads 'the captain of the ship ask for a pot of tea to be brought to him'. However, one of the sponsors of the show was a coffee company and they had the script altered so the captain requested coffee instead. Coffee, is not a British Naval officer 'thing'

[@garethm3242]

19.35 - Jay's "Fifty-Fifty-Fifty!" phone number is for Gay Chat Live or some such service that had ad jinges all over TV 25 years ago 😆

[@MrRjhyt]

Nah, it was dial a priest for Priest Talk!

[@NoDollarCrolla]

It was just some nondescript chat line usually found late at night on Channel 4 or Five. kzbin.info/www/bejne/bailmpmhfM-lrpYsi=_qYVS_I_sFzBjfFp

[@OspreyChick]

It was Chat Back, a general chat line, not only for gay people

[@philb2085]

Little corner shops in the UK sell large bags of Lays. Supermarkets sell large bags of Walkers containing small individual bags.

[@redwiltshire1816]

One thing about the local ads in the uk we do get them especially in wales wales has a ton of local advertising so for example in wales I’ll have advertising in welsh and English etc we just don’t have that local tv astetic America had

[@petermizon4344]

IF YOU HAVE A MASSIVE BAG OF CRISP AND DONT FINISH IT THEY CAN GO SOGGY, PUTTING THEM IN SMALLER BAGS KEEPS THEM FRESH

[@lynnhamps7052]

And let's you take a sensible portion for school or work lunch, if you have a big appetite, you can always take two..😊

[@sarahealey1780]

No American has ever had left over crisps to know that they can go soggy 😂

[@TheRevWillNotBeTelevised]

AND YOU ALSO CREATE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF TONS OF PLASTIC POLLUTION ☮

[@titanium_di2402]

I've never had a large bag of crisps go soggy. Ever. Also, it's not like we don't have ANY large bags of crisps, but you're unlikely to find them in an inner city grocery store. Especially when the stores are pretty small themselves. I think a lot of it is simply down to what the British consider a normal portion size versus what Americans think is normal. I can't imagine a 25g bag of crisps for sale in the US. It should be remembered that it's only relatively recently that most Brits stopped buying food daily and started shopping weekly - mostly because the size of our kitchens got bigger (extensions) and we wanted huge Yank fridges in them. We can fit much more food in them then we could when everyone only had a tiny under counter fridge with an even smaller freezer section.

[@Varksterable]

IF YOU HAVE A LEGITIMATE POINT DON'T POST IT ALL IN CAPS BECAUSE IT JUST MAKES YOU LOOK LIKE A TWAT.

[@krizan1]

6:34 NO! We have large packs of crisps over here. It's just we have multi pack ones too.

[@lewi8932]

Around the 17m mark it mentions local ads on TV and we do have that sometimes. Like Evan mentioned, we get mattress centres, or the guy down the road who sells carpets. Not common, but it does happen.

[@claptrappers]

... and usually, they are a riff on American-style adverts anyway. A character plays the business owner, and the words SALE jump around the screen, ending with a drone shot of the outlet with uncomfortable staff shouting a tagline in unison.

[@TerenceDixon-l6b]

Actually, The BBC does have regional Broadcasts such as BBC Cwmru (Wales) and BBC Alba (Scotland) often with local language programs such as Gaelic in Scotland. But strictly no advertising in the UK.

[@brian_jackson]

I think the point was that even this is not super local like in the US, where it's specific to just say the county or a few towns. You only notice this in the US when you leave the big cities.

[@PHDarren]

02:03 Remembering of course the Muppet Show was co-funded by ATV in the UK and filmed at the UK Elstree studios.

[@jobaker884]

You can get a big bag of Lays in the UK. Flintstones advertising cigarettes has blown my mind. We used to get local ads at the movies.

[@goo-r1k]

Anyone else notice in older animations you can predict what will happen like a door open, it would always change shade slightly. I don't know how to explain it

[@Bikergirl_40]

When they are on about local advertisements, we do have something similar in the different countries. Trade Centre wales and visit wales is advertised a lot when I watch tv or youtube (and I'm in wales)

[@TooManyProjects]

In case anyone cares. TV frame rates are 25fps on TV in the UK and 24fps for cinema. We would have to remix all the sound for TV ads when they went to cinema because they would play slower.

[@TerryD15]

Bulk sharing bags of crisps are widely available in the UK, but the small packets are intended for lunch boxes, to keep them fresh and crisp in smaller quantities. The difference between US an European TV was the system of recording and frame rate, i.e. Pal vs NTSC. In the US 110v system, the house lights run at 60 Hz so to avoid flicker the frame rate of shows runs at 30 fps, whereas in Europe and most other countries the electricity is at 5oHz hence the 25fps rate. Programs have to be converted for use between the two systems, and it is in the conversion that the colour shift and blurring occurs

[@watcherzero5256]

There are still regional variations on TV, different programs in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland even on BBC channels while within England there is much less (primarily the regional news), only the odd weekly hour long investigative journalism program or sport such as rugby and football matches that is shown in one region (because local teams are involved) but not in others. Broadcast TV could still show regional adverts with adverts for stores in your city or a neighbouring city (and you will get that in the cinema with local cinema ads), but you couldn't for the most part do that on satellite or streaming nowadays as they are a single national stream.

[@SashaAlonso_PricklyElder]

18:47 actually Scotland and Wales have their own arm of the BBC. Wales has 2 channels that are purely Welsh & Scotland has one (BBC Scotland) purely dedicated to Scotland. Adverts are different in different regions & do have local adverts. I was in Yorkshire 2 months ago, Bristol a month ago, Gloucester 2 weeks ago & I’m back in the New Forest. Ads were all different & very localised despite the tv programs being the same. Hope that helps.

[@Stevelives13]

There's capitalism and then there's American capitalism. Americans are unaware of this.

[@streaky81]

Internet Historian is the best at doing ads - his ads are completely off the charts and he has a whole cinematic universe. Advertisers must love him for that. Also there definitely are advertising regions in the UK - though they're a lot wider geographically than they used to be.

[@Jacquobite]

He is a right wing nut-job though, sadly.

[@SuperMcbonez]

still waiting for him to start some sort of avengers with NordVPNman and rayconman as main protagonists. Its a highlight of his vids imo

[@Flinchandflex]

Us Brits don't have local ads on tv but we do on local/regional radio stations

[@michaeljeacock]

it happens less now but you do get local ads in cinemas that always were cheap and weird looking. but most local ads now are still in the local free paper or on Facebook.

[@AndrewJonesMcGuire]

Alright so I've already got quite a few of you with the milky way song in your head. Now let's do "if you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit, join our....." 😋

[@redredlulu1]

Kia Ora advert 😀

[@mej6519]

in the uk, the only time iv seen local adverts was at saturday morning cinema(kids cinema), altho it was always for the local fish and chip shop or the local steak house.

[@davidbennett3098]

We had certain regional ads when ITV was regional E.G Yorkshire TV had a few ads that were specific to Yorkshire.

[@jennil7797]

National television does exist because we have specific t.v. channels for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, We have S4C, a Welsh language t.v. channel here.

[@andrewcowan145]

In the North East of England we had directed adverts for the region with Phileas Fog crisps, made in Medomsley Road Consett. These were a great local laugh.

[@robertwilloughby8050]

They got as far as Yorkshire (I'm just south of Leeds) and they were AMAZING crisps (the really spicy ones were best!).

[@theotherside8258]

You do get local ads rarely depending on channel but what you do get is ads with audio specific to regional areas expressing voiceovers in local accents. The scope is limited because of the way terrestrial signals are broadcast by regional transmitters

[@davidhines7592]

the only time adverts influence me is usually i like the song instead of the product, then i google the advert to find the song name. if that fails i google the lyrics until i know what mp3 to buy on amazon. the actual product i dont even remember mainly.

[@Sofasurfa]

The thing with crisps, is you don’t want to waste them, no one like crisps the day after you’ve opened them I remember having big bags of crisps that one could empty into a bowl but haven’t seen them for a while.

[@andrewvalentine6977]

You can get both sharing bags and individual bags of crisps in the UK.

[@WineCheeseGoats]

Safe Light/Auto Glass Repair/Replace is Speedy Glass Repair/Replace in Canada.

[@ericg5791]

Jim Henson lived at 50 Downshire Hill,Hamsptead,London (Blue Plaque) and had his Creature Workshop across the road,at No.18,where he created the puppets for The Dark Crystal and Fraggle Trump Rock

[@Playstationcat]

In the UK, some television channels speed up the rolling credits in films during broadcast to fit tighter scheduling.

[@hadz8671]

I was amazed when I first watched sitcoms in the US and there were ads immediately after the opening titles and just before the closing credits.

[@jasonalldridge5784]

The main difference is the placement of the Adverts, in the UK they are between the programs, splitting 1 program from the other whereas in the state you get an ad break just before the end of a program so had to watch to get the punchline, then you go straight into the next program, and the next ad is after the creditsand previously on section (We both have additional breaks during a program the UK then has 1 break in the middle of a half episode, and 3 breaks splitting an hour episode) except for the BBC where we don't have adverts.

[@HyperDaveUK]

7:04 When the UK shows American imports that they've purchased from American TV the voices do sound differently pitched.. And if this were because the episode were sped up that would be why..

[@Nobby76]

We do have big bags of crisps, doritos is a prime example and also the big bags of kettle chips, quite a lot of companies do big bags. But over here crisps were seen more as a kids snack rather than an adults comfort food. So they are mostly done in packs big enough for a kid to handle (perfect to go in the lunchbox with some sandwiches, a drink and some sort of cake or snack bar) usually 6 packs in a bag (enough for 1 everyday for school and 1 on saturday)

[@seijika46]

Local advertising tends to be most notable in local radio - so if you have a driving commute you're more likely to remember snappy jingles and the like.

[@weejackrussell]

In the USA, when I first saw TV adds, I actually thought that there had been some disaster and that the programme was being interrupted to break some tragic news. In the UK the BBC has no advertisements. Other channels used to have predictable timed breaks but recently it has become much more like the USA on some channels, programmes abruptly interrupted by adverts with no warning. In the UK television programmes only used to be interrupted with no warning if there was some massive national or world tragedy taking place!

[@wirralnomad]

We used to have Bernard Manning selling cars on an advert for BOC of Manchester, "We're The Earl's Court of the North" was his phrase, it was like a Mancunian version of one of those local dealerships seeling cars you see in American movies.

[@Jason_L10]

I think Scotland, wales and NI have seperate ads to england. They also have local broadcasters like S4C, STV and UTV. Which produce thier own shows, a good example iwas on STV a soap called Take the Highroad. They also show national sports events like the Scottish/welsh football teams.

[@l0ngsh0t_ag]

I must make a correction on one point - SOME of our advertisement broadcasting is local - and broadcasting is sent out regionally, not nationally, so it is possible for the broadcaster to broadcast localised content for SOME things. I recently saw, for example, an advert for a company who are constructing a new local residential development. I can assure you, this advertisement would not have been shown in a region like Lancashire. It would, however, have been shown to broadcasting in the county regions of ITV in Essex and Suffolk.

[@TheBlackcredo]

It's not quite the same across the UK. Wales does have ads and programmes that are very Welsh specific. Also, until the digital switchover, basic terrestrial television didn't include Channel 4. We had S4C which during the day had programmes in Welsh then in the evening English language programmes including some Channel 4 programmes, but often we'd get them quite a while after they were shown in England.

[@OEDODRAGON]

I think multipack bags of crisps/chocolates/biscuits are made to go in children's school lunch boxes.

[@melanierhianna]

It is related to the mains frequency and indirectly to the frame rate but US Tv looking washed out in the UK was NTSC (“Never Twice the Same Colour) vs PAL (Perfection At Last). PAL is a higher resolution because of the lower frame rate allows more lines per frame. 480 for NTSC vs 572 for PAL. Also PAL has better colour encoding. [Each scan line flips the colour encoding which means errors cancel out, NTSC doesn’t do this and so the colour can drift hence the extra knob on US TVs]

[@KirstinDisney1990]

Nope, in Scotland here further South we have STV not ITV. (Which is English, not sure about Wales) When I lived much further North, (bit still West) we had Grampian. Tended to be same programmes, though not always when I was a kid! But nowhere in Scotland, do we get ITV, so definitely not national. And some of our ads are more local inasmuch as some of them advertise some stuff in Scotland, or advertising Scottish services.

[@ronero_urvanwar]

Has Jay never watched British TV. So many ads are regional ads like the local car dealership or local supermarket especially at Christmas time.

[@anticarrrot]

The one time local companies got to 'advertise' on TV was the show Challenge Anneka - which effectively consisted of Anneka Rice trying to persuade local companies to give up time and equipment and material for large scale charity projects, often under very harsh time limits. The companies started to get a bit more eager once they realied how much B-Roll footage was the camera panning across company names and logos printed on the side of trucks. (Sometimes with telephone numbers.) Or the host talking with the company, or thanking them for supplying their very nice [product/service] so very quickly. And because no money was given to the show, andindividual B-roll shots were short and served a narative purpose, they got clean away with it.

[@adlam97531]

I miss the different Britsh regional station Idents we used to have for each region. LWT, and Anglian TV in my local area

[@harvelle2432]

I tape EVERYTHING!!! I can fast forward ALL the Ads..................

[@TheCornishCockney]

Tape??

[@B-A-L]

When Star Trek TNG first aired on the BBC in the early 90s it was scheduled for a 40 minute tv slot because thats how long the actual show was without any ads whatsoever. I was in NYC a couple of years later and was watching an episode in my hotel room and it was on for an hour because the other 20 minutes were all ads. It wasn't the amount of ads that got me but the frequency of the ad breaks. The schedule went ads, opening scene, ads, opening credits, ads, first part, ads, second part, ads, third part, ads, closing credits, ads!

[@paulrnaylor]

I remember sky got the rights to star trek voyager and they did put the advert for the show ended. I hated it and because of this i have watch lots star trek series but never voyager because of it

[@l3v1ckUK]

The first time I went to America (Texas), the adverts were a shock. Specifically the TV programme finished, there were then adverts, then the end credits, then the start credits for the next programme, more adverts, then the next programme actually started. That was weird. Two sets of adverts between programmes.

[@jbeattie02]

Don't they also have recaps and next up at the start and end of shows in America too