I realize that the title is a double entendre. I'm actually not
understanding ads, though I also don't view ads because I mute them or
block them entirely.

I'm a huge college football fan. I was looking up an issue and was
predictably redirected to a Ddit thread. I wound up exploring around
and stumbled upon a thread bemoaning the prevalence of gambling ads.
As usual, I didn't really relate to most of the frustrations, mostly
directed at sports gambling ads. I do see sports gambling being pushed
and I do think it's repulsive (I've never gambled for anything more
substantive than candy). I'm just amazed at how many people seem to be
putting up with this bullshit.  Hit the mute button. It's right there.
You don't even have to leave the couch/recliner/bed. That's IF you
choose to allow ads. 

Anyway, they were upset about the prevalence of ads promoting
gambling. I totally agree and I think it's a societal issue, but I'm
more blown away by the fact that people choose to even look at them. I
don't get it. If it's an eyesore, look away. If you don't want to hear
about it, mute it! I can understand if they're doing it during the
broadcast (sadly it is a thing), but what good comes from commercial
breaks in 2023? They're unimaginative and either dull or insulting
most of the time. "Oh, people love this pandering shit. Let's give it
to them."

I think it says a lot that people actually go back and watch online
videos of ads from the 1980s-2000s. I'm not saying all of them are
winners, but enough of them were. Probably one of the best "bumpers" I
ever saw was just a beautiful computer animation of the viewer zooming
through a city and eventually panning out to see "HBO" written via
lights around a body of water. I remember the first time seeing it and
I was very impressed.

I'm also old enough to remember when most shows had introductions.
Usually 30 seconds to a minute of a theme song to get you into the
mood to watch a good show. The first time I recall a show forsaking
that was when I watched the premiere of Girls on HBO in 2012. It was
just dull and pointless (much like the show, honestly). Some shows I
absolutely love like Spartacus and Gotham actually don't have a real
intro. They're maybe 5-10 seconds of a logo. They do add effects, but
the actual theme is scattered throughout the show or in the credits.
Banshee and Game of Thrones actually did the opposite and expanded the
intro with detailed changes from episode to episode. So did Psych, to
an extent. It's wonderful how something that doesn't even last 2
minutes can be so beautiful and memorable. Futurama is another one
that changes the intro every time but it's very slight visually while
audibly the exact same almost every time.

It's funny to see myself writing the previous part because in a desire
to maximize storage efficiency, I actually cut out a lot of intros to
shows and put them in a separate file. This has been hit or miss for
me. It's great when the shows don't have changing intros, lead-ins, or
commentary tracks, but it gets choppy and probably shouldn't have been
done on shows like Smallville or Everwood where the intro pops in and
the intro music is started before the intro actually begins visually.
It's definitely more of a do or don't and I think I did more than I
should have, especially with those last two shows I mentioned. I mean
I still have them uncut, but I didn't really back them up offline
because I don't have a ton of storage to do that.

But back to the titular subject, advertising has gotten worse. A
proper intro could do far better "advertising" than most of these new
shows get, but they're also only visible at the beginning of the show,
preaching to the choir, if you will. I just don't understand how these
mindless ads actually turn a profit for anyone. I guess they do, and
that's a damning indictment on the general public.