Spoilers

Class, today I will be ranting about spoilers, and their effect on me. Please take notes, as this WILL be on the exam.

I hate it when the media feels it must put spoilers into adverts in order to get people's interest. Hate! Why do television channels feel like they must shove down our throats what will happen in the next ten episodes in order to get us to watch the next one? Do you know what it actually does?

Well, do you?

What it actually does is ruin the program. There is no point watching an episode of CSI, Lost, Grey's Anatomy or ANYTHING if you advertise the ending, or the big suprise in the middle or even the first ten minutes as part of your campaign to rival other channels!

The same goes for films; if you show something which happens in the last ten minutes in your trailers/promos, then you will just annoy the eagle-eyed viewers, as they will know that they are still expecting something huge and cool to happen. It also lessens the experience of the film.

I do actually know why it's done; it's because almost everything good that we watch is American, and they design all of the promotional material for their program for their stupid, attention-span-less audiences, and we just get it filetered down to us. What this has done is set some kind of stupid precedent for our own channels, who think that they have to live up the these other promos in order to get viewers.

Here's a suggestion; how about you use what happened in the last episode and remind us of why we're desperate for the next one? Or you could make something intelligent which just gently reminds us to watch the program. And if it's a film, you could just make something small and seperate to advertise the film, like Disney did for The Incredibles; their trailer contained an amusing little scene which wasn't at all used in the film.

And another thing; do NOT tell us what is about to happen in the episode just before it starts! We're already there to watch it, and if you're wanting to get people who are randomly flicking through the channels to watch it then how about you just talk about how funny/interesting the episode is WITHOUT giving specifics?!

Argh!!!

Thank you class. Your homework for this week is to go find a TV executive and explain the contents of this lecture to them. With a pointed stick, if necessary.

You are now dismissed.