President Obama and others watching 3D Commercials
Everyone knows that 3D Televisions are now a reality. We also know that the 3D TV’s will require people to use 3D Glasses in order to watch the 3D Channels. What people might not realize is that watching commercials in 3D will encourage people to absorb them to a much greater extent, for several reasons. What do I mean by absorb? Basically, when you watch commercials on a non-3D TV, you are usually sitting down, in a char or couch or maybe on a bean bag. And when the commercial comes on the screen you can look at the screen and then look away without any problem. It only takes a second or so for your eyes to adjust to the image on the screen after having looked away. Now, imagine you are wearing 3D Glasses. You put the glasses on your head, sit down in your seat, and now start watching the 3D Television Station. Wait – think for a second. What just happened? You took another step than you did when you didn’t have a 3D TV. The extra step was that you PUT THE 3D GLASSES ON. Now, this may seem like a minute step. But in actuality it is an act of work, that required an extra bit of effort on your part as a TV watcher. Keep this in the back of your mind as you read on.
After you start watching your TV show with your 3D glasses on, the show comes to a commercial break. Now remember, when you didn’t have the glasses on you could look away, or go get food or look at your phone or something. But now you have the 3D glasses on, so if you decide on getting up and getting something from you refrigerator, since the 3D glasses make everything a lot darker (almost like sunglasses) then you will probably have to either take the 3D glasses off. This is important, because by taking the 3D glasses off, you have just done another step, another piece of work. Now think about this for a moment, when you are watching TV, you are not really in the mood to do extra work, you are in a state where you want to be entertained. So it would be going against your already set momentum of action by taking the glasses off. So in actuality, you will most likely NOT TAKE THE GLASSES OFF. You will in all likelihood, sit through the commercials with the 3D glasses on. Why? Because it’s easier than taking the glasses on and off every 7-10 minutes. Therefore 3D TV will encourage people to sit through more commercials.
But what about absorption? I said that you would absorb more commercials when watching 3D TV and I meant it. Well, now that we know that 3D TV will encourage you to sit through more commercials. Think about how the commercials are different now. You will be absorbing them more for the following reasons. First of all, it takes more actual physical work for you eyes and brain to decode 3D images. This is pretty obvious. The TV images aren’t normal images that you are used to seeing in every day life. They are stereo images that have the colors split and ghosted in order to give you the 3D effect when you put on the glasses. So when you look at the 3D TV with the glasses on, either eye doesn’t see the same image. In fact, the entire 3D illusion is created, because your eyes are tricked by the 3D TV and the 3D glasses. But in order for the illusion to work, your eyes and mind have to do a little extra processing in order to give your mind the 3D image. So in a sense, you are concentrating more when you use the 3D TV and Glasses. That’s point number one, concentration. The second point is that the commercials are in 3D so they are more visually stimulating. They pop out at you and do interesting things, they seem more interesting than regular commercials because it looks like the commercial occupies actual 3-dimensional space. So the end result is that you are more stimulated by the 3D Images rather than a flat 2D image. The extra stimulation of 3D commercials along with the added concentration that is required to view the image mixed with the fact that you don’t want to do the extra work to take the glasses off means that you will absorb more information from each commercial. You will absorb more product information, you will absorb more brand name recognition, you will absorb more emotional responses to things that stimulate your emotions (like sexual imagery, or sensual food advertisements that may stimulate your salivary glands) and most of all, you will more suggestions from each advertisement. If an advertisement is sending you a suggestion to be hungry, you will be hungrier when watching it in 3D. If a commercial is sending a suggestion to be more afraid and worried about your security, you can count on the fact that the burglar in the home alarm commercial will be more frightening when he breaks into someone’s house in 3D.
So what is the real point of 3D TV? To get you to not just watch more commercials, but to absorb commercials to a greater extent. It is really that simple. If you think that 3D TV is going to be a fad that fades away in a couple of years, think again. I predict today on May 18th, 2010 that all televisions that will be sold 10 years from now will all have 3D TV capability. If you want to get a TV without 3D it will be as hard as finding a TV with an antenna port. Non 3D TV’s just won’t exist anymore. All television stations will be in High Definition and 3D. Why is this going to happen? One reason, consumption. By having TV watchers absorb more information and suggestions from their programming and commercials, the creators of programming and commercials will have more control over the mass consumption of the people. This in turn will influence the market economy, as well personal choices, in style, preferences, and consumption habits. Don’t be surprised if we start seeing, 3D computers. And Youtube in 3D.
Tonight, while I was watching the TV Show, LOST, there was a commercial about the 10 o’clock news. And do you want to know what the news story was in the advertisement? The news story presented at the commercial break was, (and I am NOT joking here, I actually saw this on channel HD 7) that movie theater pop-corn was good for your health. I thought for a second that I was watching a practical joke. I mean, how stupid does the media really think we are? Movie theater pop-corn, being good for us? Is this some kind of joke?
Ok, so excuse my pun, but it definitely seems like we are getting BUTTERED up for something right now. Now, I am not trying to upset you, or make you not want a 3D TV or anything. The fact is, there is no escaping this trend. We are going to have to experience it whether we like it or not. I just never expected to see 3D TVs in my lifetime, never-mind before I hit 30. The reason why I am telling you this is because I want you to be able to see it coming and laugh about it. If you have a friend that starts to make fun of you or belittle you because you don’t have the latest gadget, gizmo, or technology, now you know that there is more than meets the eye on the latest toys. And trust me, they are toys. We are being induced into an extended child-like state of attempting to satiate our desires on physical, and emotional levels. We are being programmed to want to be stimulated, instead of being encouraged to create for ourselves. Take a moment and think about how many times you experience the idea, “I want” during the day. Do you want things, once during the day? Perhaps 2-5 times per day? Or do you find yourself desiring things and emotions on a constant basis throughout your daily life. This state of mind of constant desire is not the “natural” state of mind for human beings, it is a conditioned response to a world that rewards desires at every turn. And 3D television encouraging us to absorb 3D commercials is just the beginning.
-Tyler