I have been watching the Shield being rebroadcast on FX, and the last episode had ad-bugs that took up about 1/4 of the screen, and had sound. And I mean drown out the dialogue sound effects. One was a wave crashing sound, and I forget the other one. Has this intrusive an ad been done before? I know they have huge ad-bugs that roll up from the bottom of the screen, but I don't remember having it so loud that I missed dialogue on the show I was watching.

One thing about it was smart though; it made me want to turn off the tv, and just buy the DVD of the show so I wouldn't have to deal with that ever again.

god i hate that (and it was for master and commander, a freakin movie, not some tv show, a movie)

Yup. Happens all the time.

Get used to it. Television is losing viewers and, since it's a business, will do EVERYTHING it can to promote new shows (or movies financed by the parent company.)

It has the opposite affect on most of us, but we are a small minority.

Are we sure we're the minority?? These things really, really do have the opposite effect on me (and probably most of us DVDTalk people?) than the networks want. Not only does it get me pissed about the show they're advertising, but I start to hate the show I'm watching because of the 1/3rd bottom of the screen being hijacked.

I guess I'm gonna take an active stance on this and start writing to the studios and tell them they are the shit for continuing this practice.

The one I've seen the most (and the one that is the most annoying to me) is the one for the reality show about the hot chick that hooks up with the "normal" guys. I can't even remember the name of it. Just that the bug covers half the screen.

Anyway, I'm sure millions of people will tune in to the show. And even if they don't like the bug, they will just ignore it and keep watching the network and possible even the show being advertised. A vast majority certainly won't boycott a show because of it.

That being said, I'm totally against this type of advertising. However, as I always say, television is a business and the money for these shows has to come from somewhere. So if they can get the message out about a new show, even if it's in an obnoxious way, they will continue to do that.

Careful, some people might view that as a compliment.