Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Barking on the Air

One of the interesting things about the movies and television is how rare smoking on screen has become. Likewise, drinking. Dean Martin's "have a martini while doing the TV show" schtick would never fly these days.

Then there's barking. Still ubiquitous on the screen and on the radio. Trust me, there's nothing that makes me shut my radio off faster than that barking dog Christmas carol. That song gets more way more airplay than it ever deserved.

Which brings me to advertising. You're probably in a locale where more than one business uses barking dogs in its commercials.

Here in Tucson, one of the prime offenders is an auto brake shop, and trust me, I will never patronize that place. And there's a real estate agent who can't bear to promote her services without bringing her yappy dog into the ad. Cross her off the list too.

What made smoking and drinking rare on the air? Changing social standards.

We can do the same thing with barking. We can call and e-mail the businesses that use barking in their advertising. Remind them that money talks, and that our money is going to be talking at other businesses. We can educate the producers of movies and TV shows about the harm done by uncontrolled barking.

The Department of Shameless Self-Promotion. If you want to show your displeasure, you can holler at those barking dogs on the TV and the radio. But you'll make yourself hoarse in a hurry. Instead, head over to my QuietBarkingDogs store. All sorts of bumper stickers and tee shirts that will save your voice and make your sentiments known far and wide.

4 comments:

  1. YQN:

    This is an excellent article. One thing that has come to my attention is barking noise in the background in various TV shows and movies. Interestingly, the "bark track" is almost always limited to home/residential environments. For example, you never hear a dog bark in the background of "The West Wing" when the president and staff are in the oval office. Enduring endless barking is limited to us peons, I guess.

    There is also a tendency to (stupidly) use dogs to promote various non-pet products. Consider - http://www.subaru.com/dogs/index.html

    Dog tested? I would be VERY interested to meet the dogs that tested the vehicles in question. Do they have state issued driver's licenses? How did they coherently relate the various characteristics (acceleration, braking, ride, handling) of the vehicles in question? Did they fill out forms or did they give details verbally? I think VW does the same thing.

    I have a little RV travel trailer that I tow with a Chevy Silverado. My cat usually goes with me. She is a good road tripper and doesn't mind riding in the truck at all. Maybe General Motors should start a "Chevrolet - Cat Approved" campaign?

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  2. I Have been documenting the television commercials that feature dog barking and currently I have nine listed. As I find it annoying I want to complain to the advertisers and network. We don't need noise pollution pouring through our TV it is bad enough with neighbors who are inconsiderate.

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  3. John,

    Are you going to complain to the ad agency or the organization that bought their services? It would be great if Subaru, for instance, dropped their ad agency for "dogging" the ads.

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    1. To JohnT, Animal Uncontrol, and everyone else: Complain to the companies with barking dogs in their ads. But don't stop there. Complain to the media that run these ads. And the ad agencies that create them.

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