Jason C. seems like a nice guy. He’s a firefighter with a friendly disposition who selflessly always looks to help others. But Jason hasn’t always had it easy. He has sensitive skin and gets ingrown hairs making it difficult for him to keep up with the daily shaving requirements that being a firefighter demands.
I know that I should care about Jason. Firefighters like him do tireless, thankless work to keep me safe. And yet I don’t give a damn about Jason C. At least not anymore. How could I when he’s been torturing me for the last week.
You see, Jason C. is the first person I see every time there’s a commercial break when watching a game on the MLB app. No matter the day, no matter the time, no matter the teams playing, braces wearing Jason C. is always there to remind me of how sensitive skin his skin is. I’m an empathetic guy but there’s only so much that even I can take. Gillette may be the best a man can get but getting subjected to hearing the same ad over and over again during every commercial break is not the best that a fan can get.
It may sound extreme to say but in my opinion this is borderline inhumane treatment. A form of brainwashing pure and simple. I get that we live in a capitalistic society. That Gillette paid for this ad time fair and square. And that I as a consumer have other choices. But it doesn’t make what they are doing and what MLB is letting them do any less horrific.
Which is why we need to put restrictions in place. If MLB isn’t going to air this commercial less and Gillette isn’t going to choose to run it less than we need to force their hand. Pass legislation that puts limit on how often commercials can be run.
For instance, you could say that the same commercial can’t run in consecutive innings or that it can only run five times per game or ten times per day or whatever restrictions you want to put in place. Because the way it is now (with the same commercial airing every inning, and as the first commercial of that break to boot) is not sustainable psychologically for viewers. Plain and simple, it makes the games unwatchable and makes me want to use the app less which is the exact opposite point of the app’s existence. Soon, viewers, fed up with getting force-fed, will start to leave in droves.
You would think that baseball, a sport that already saw a mass exodus of fans after the 1994 strike, would be especially cognizant of how they treat their fans. And yet just the opposite is true as their app treats the fan experience as a complete and utter after thought. Not cool MLB. Not cool at all.
Are advertising restrictions on the MLB app warranted?
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