Rant: Those damn Onstar commercials.

[jasonl]

OK, I'm one of the few people that likes to go to sleep with the radio on. Music choice: Oldies. Well, there's only one 24hr oldies channel so that's my only choice. Problem is: They play those nerve-racking Onstar commercials where it's some lady screaming and crying "OH MY GOD I NEED AN AMBULANCE! I JUST GOT IN A WRECK AND I'M BLEEDING ALL OVER!!!!!!!" How's that for something to play in the middle of the night.

Currently there are two versions of these commercials, a few that have something like "I locked my keys in the car". Those start out with "The following is a conversation between an Onstar representative and a motorist". The other variety is the bloodcurdling screaming lady-just-got-in-a-wreck commercial. When these first aired, there was a warning "The following is a conversation between an Onstar EMERGENCY representative and a motorist". So if I happened to be awake I could shut off the radio. I'm sure lots of people did the same. NOW they've gotten slick and got right to the screaming lady.

TRANSMITTING THE SOUNDS OF SCREAMING AND CRYING PEOPLE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT IS ANNOYING!!! There is no reason for that kind of shock advertisement.

 

[sudsmaster]

This is why we have NPR (National Public Radio). Few if any commercials. It's also excellent for lulling one to sleep

 

[Cybrvanr]

The biggest annoyance I have with radio commercials is the ones with horn-honking, sirens, or tire-screeching in it. Radio stations also like to have these sound effects in the background of their traffic reports for some reason too. I drive a lot in the very heavy I95 traffic. When I hear horns, sirens, or tires, I think something's gone wrong around me, like an emergency vehicle trying to get through, or someone has crashed, that type of thing.

 

[Designgeek]

I'll go a little further and say that transmitting graphic violence or equivalent, of any kind, over broadcast media should be prohibited in the same manner as transmitting sexual or excretory material. Goose, gander.

Meanwhile, you can call up and write to the radio station and tell them you're not going to listen to them overnight precisely because of those ads. And call and write to OnStar, ditto. Enough letters & phone calls might just cause them to change their behavior.

Personally I would never leave a broadcast media device of any kind on whilst I'm sleeping. Holy cow, talk about brainwash during defenseless moments!

I use a white noise generator and thereby never have to put up with unwelcome suggestions from self-interested parties, much less blood-curdling screams, getting into my sleep. If anyone's interested, I could provide instructions (quite simple really) for building one that's better than the ones you can buy.

Or if you want music, just buy a CD every few weeks, anything with a slow enough tempo that it won't wake you up, and use a multi-CD changer. Or an I-Pod plugged into speakers, with eight hours of shuffled selections so you're not hearing the same thing in the same order every night.

 

[toggleswitch]

Jason:

If I still have that spoof commericial of a ditzy on-star customer, I will send it to ya.

OMG I'm locked IN my car. Oh hon, the keys are right there in the ignition. OOOOPPPSSS

 

[jasonl]

White noise

When I was living in Chalmette right before the Katrina, I had a window unit in my room. The noise from a window AC is very soothing. When I evacuated to Opelousas, the back room where I was living had a window AC, same effect. Now in this new house with central ac/heat, and (except for the few ac or heat cycles that come on) it's dead silent at night and that drives me absolutely crazy. I have to have either the ceiling fan on or the radio. And when SCREAMING WOMEN come out of my vintage GE clock radio's speaker, I get mad. And you wouldn't like me when I'm mad LOL.

Designgeek, Violence, hatred, and anger of any kind shouldn't be transmitted over any kind of medium unless it's like premium channels (like HBO or something). I love rock music but that mean-spirited, violent, cursing, "I hate you" rock (and most of rap) has got to go.

 

[drmitch]

I dont like it either Jason! This is what happens as the moronic rise to the top levels of companys and do as they wish and not as it was originally intended. Instead of people wanting their products they despise them. I recently remarked on a magazine advertisement for GMC professional grade trucks. The photo was a truck completly covered in mud. Was this intended to impress. My old truck would look just as good if decorated in the same manner. And what is the price per month for the onstar service? I rarely lock my keys in my car, and keep a spare in my billfold, but was wondering how it compaired to having to call a locksmith. I dont know how we have made it all these years without it. I do not own a cell phone either but thats another story.

 

[DADoES]

White Noise

I grew up with with windows units and can't take a too-quiet environment for sleeping. Jason, get a little space heater that has a fan setting. That'll be less breezy than a ceiling fan, which generally would have to run on high to make enough noise to be effective. I also sometimes put the central fan to ON instead of Auto, but others in your household might object to that.

 

[jasonl]

I would SO love to be able to run the central ac/heat fan at night but some people won't like it. You're right, a small portable heater would work fine. Some even have a digital thermostat so I could turn it way down low and get heat if it gets chilly at night.

Dr. Mitch, you know, there are better ways to advertise a product without trying to play your emotions by exploiting a "damsel in distress" using the system. I do like the idea of it triggering a call when the airbag deploys. But broadcasting recordings of such calls on the radio? NO. Hell no. Again, that kind of advertising didn't work for me. Believe it or not, the new VW Beetles has OnStar (HUH?). Yep, they do.

 

[Kevinpreston3]

Completely unrelated dream thought....

Here is a mind bender for you.

Ever have a dream that has a noise in it, and you wake up to hear that actual noise going on? For example, in your dream you are sawing a board, and wake up to find that your neighbor is sawing a board.

All well and good, but since a kid I wondered about these things.

First, does your dream visions take place "18 frames behind" to borrow an editing term, from reality? If it's not, how does your mind know to build your dream around what you are hearing?

Examples.

It is 7 am exactly. I am dreaming of building a house. At 7:05 am the neighbor starts using his saw, which of course, matches my dream vision. How did my mind know he was going to use the saw?

Or

At 7:05 am the neighbor starts using his saw. Does my mind "record" that somewhere and then build the dream around to support the sound? If that is true, why?

Either way, it is a very, very strange thing.

 

[drmitch]

Kevin, you need help! Youll have to try home depot! LOL! A friend had a dream about being in a dogfight in a WWII airplane and getting shot down and woke up and his toe had gotten into the box fan at the foot of his bed! Ouch!

 

[jasonl]

Dreams

YES it happens. I can sometimes hear the radio in the dream. One of the dreams I distinctly remembered hearing the station call letters "Oldies 92.5 KVPI, etc..." and I dreamt I was in the studio. Other times, the dream becomes part of the song. Believe it or not, I dreamed about the Texas wash-in from 2 weeks ago. Guess what the song was? Age Of Aquarius.

And yes, I was in the middle of a dream and "Onstar emergency, how can I help you? I JUST CRASHED AND I'M BLEEDING ALL OVER..." That really pissed me off. I woke up, turned off the radio and threw it off the night stand. Hence, my rant.

 

[sudsmaster]

Well... the problem will never really go away. Commercials are designed to get your attention, one way or the other. It's a variation on the propaganda techniques perfected by the Nazis in Germany... it is a form of brainwashing, and quite insidious at that. I suppose it's the price we pay for "free" radio and TV. I think most Americans get quite used to it. But when I was sharing a house in college with a foreign student, he used to go into sarcastic laughing fits whenever a TV commercial came on. I think he was puzzled by the blank zoned out stares that the Americans would go into when the commercials came along. He didn't realize it was a well-tuned defense mechanism... shut brain off so evil cannot intrude... lol...

 

[jasonl]

I know that I can remember well commercials from the 70s alot more than I can remember tv show episodes. They seem to pop out at you and invade your brain.

Can you just imagine what it's like answering the calls for Onstar? You gotta be numb or have nerves of steel to deal with those people. I'd either have a nervous breakdown or a heart attack from the all that.

Example: An Onstar employee comes home after a long day of screaming accident victims.

OnStar Employee: "Thank you for calling OnStar, what can I do for you tonight?"
Wife: "Hi honey, I've been waiting for you all day"
OSE: "How may I assist you?"
Wife: "Make love to me, do me baby!"
(they make love)
OSE: "Is there anything else I can help you with?"
Wife: "No, that's all"
OSE: "Thank you for screwing Onstar, have a good night"