Keep Commercials off DVD! Sign linked Petition in Post #76 (1 Viewer)

Just got finished watching "Finding Neverland" on DVD..

Imagine my chagrin at being subjected to a truck commercial after the trailers, quickly turning into murderous RAGE when I discovered I could by no means fast forward through it.. I hit the "skip chapter button", nothing.. I had to hit mute..

Do they really think this is going to be met with anything but annoyance at least, and the afore-mentioned murderous rage at most?

Do they really think I'm going to want to buy their damn truck, being force-fed this garbage?!?!

Damn, even Disney (DI$NEY!!!) lets you "skip chapter" on their asses..

Petition

Sounds bad, what truck manufacturer did this? and let's start a nasty snail mail letter campaign pledging never to buy their trucks, or anything from the maufacturer.

There is some legal action being taken by some Senators I believe, to stop theaters forcing people to sit through commercials before a movie starts. I think this is not exactly targeted at trailers persee but rather automoblile, shoes, food, and other types of advertising. It may help this battle too in the long run.

I duuno.. I was too busy, once the realization set in, trying to get rid of it..

And when I finally resorted to the mute button all I could see was red anyways..

Anyone with the DVD know which truck ad? I'm loathe to put the DVD in again and check..

I think it was a Montana or something. Either way it was aggravating to have to watch an unskippable commercial for a truck. The next big thing the assholes will do is interrupt the movie right in the middle and slide in a few "friendly ads" just like regular broadcast television.

Lately, I have noticed that the skip and fast forward buttons are being locked out on a lot of discs. You pay twenty to twenty-five bucks for a movie and then are forced to sit through f@#$ing garbage commercials before being able to watch what you paid for.

Seems like this ad is Canada exclusive, so once again we have to thank Alliance Atlantis!

I'm very careful when I buy from them anyway, making sure the US counterpart of a Miramax film has French audio as well, that way making it unnecesary for Alliance to further modify the disc by dropping extras. But of course leave it to them to find another way to piss us off.

Sometimes I wonder if they have a list of ways to annoy customers which they go through step by step. Dropped extras, bad packaging, Fullscreen where the US gets widescreen... we've had it all from them.

EDIT:

Just saw that this is even mentioned in Roger Ebert's answer man column!

Q. The Canadian release of the DVD "Finding Neverland" contains an advertisement for an American automobile manufacturer. It is bad enough that we must watch ads in the theaters, but now on DVD?

I've registered a complaint with the film company and the manufacturer but am not naive enough to believe it will have any effect. It would not be as bad if there were an ability to fast forward or skip the ad but that option is not available on this disc.

J.W. Leman, Edmonton, Alberta

A. This is a new low. Advertising supports programming that I receive for free, on radio and television, and that's fine with me. But when I pay, I expect to see only what I have paid for. Ads in theaters are an abomination, hated by most of the moviegoers I talk to. To be locked into a compulsory viewing of an ad on a DVD, on top of the useless FBI warning that also cannot be skipped, is a new species of outrage. And years after that car is off the market, you'll still have to look at the ad, as it breeds continuing ill will for the manufacturer.


Chris

Thanks for that, Christian..

Good to know I'm not alone..

We just rented this last night and though I was surprised by the commercial, I didn't try to skip it since we were still getting set up.

Tried it again just now. All the trailers were skippable, but the commercial was not. Even when you click the Menu button to avoid the Coming Attractions stuff, it still forces the commercial before the movie menu shows up. Sometimes you can actually hit the Stop button during things you can't skip and then hit Menu to avoid them. But nope, not here. It is absolutely forced.

By the way, it's for the Pontiac Montana SV6. Damn SUVs are everywhere...

I would also have disdain for the ad, but I'd direct my rage at Disney. They are the ones who allowed it, profited from its placement and decided to make it a "forced" ad.

I've always felt it would come to this. We need to complain, often and loudly, to prevent this from spreading to other studios and other regions.

But was it Disney? The commercial's not on the US disc, and the Canadian disc comes from Alliance Atlantis.

Chris

But why only in canada? Are you sure it isn't Alliance Atlantis* that is responsible for this ad and not Miramax/Disney directly? I ask because the standard trailers are as they should be on a disney DVD, skipable, and only the truck ad is forced so it seems to me like it was slipped in there after the fact.....just a theory mind you.
Has anyone reported this on the american version?

*Unless Alliance Atlantis is owned by Miramax/Disney, I don't know the particulars on that.

I don't think there is an ad on the American version. There are trailers but one can skip them.

I think I said this before, but if I ever found out a particular DVD has something like this, I would refuse to buy it. I think that's what we're going to have to do. Speak our minds with our wallets. Money is the only thing big business seems to understand.

Personally if there's a movie that I want, I don't care if there's 10 commercials in front of it. It's annoying but I'm not going to 'deprive' myself of something I want just because of an ad.

I don't feel like I'm "depriving" myself of a movie if I refuse to buy it, since there are plenty of other movies out there that I haven't bought yet. I can go spend my money on those non-annoying DVDs instead.

I believe Alliance Atlantis is associated in some way with Universal Canada.

I once sent a complaint to [email protected] which was forwarded to [email protected] from whom I received a reply that was signed Universal Studios / Alliance Atlantis Video

The title in question was from New Line (LOTR:TTT)

I would have bought the Sixth Sense DVD when it was first released but didn't because I knew that it featured forced trailers. It goes without saying that I will not be adding any discs with forced commercials to my collection.

I'll admit that there are a select few movies that I'm so much a fan of that I wouldn't deprive myself of if they both have ten commercials in front of them and cost $100. That list is so small that if the entire DVD industry were to put forced commercials on every discs starting tomorrow that my collection will grow at the rate of one new title every other year.

Yeah, Doug, unfortunately your thread title is
true- the future of DVDs. This problem will get
worse before it gets better. Forced trailers and
commercials are the absolute worst part of
DVD collecting right now.

It's no fun, no. A forced ad like that, one that can't be skipped, is a joke....but I'm not laughing. But forced FBI warnings? So what? A small price to pay for owning a film that can be watched anytime at your home. Look! a few seconds of my time is spent looking at the FBI logo!

Big deal. Find another way of prepping for the film...like get some popcorn ready or something. I manage that time instead of getting all raged-out.

Ew. Popcorn is disgusting.

However its not as disgusting as putting F*ing commercials on DVDs. The few times that I go to the theaters, I find myself looking at my watch repeatedly waiting for the damn movie to start. They advertise start time at such and such an hour, but the damn thing does NOT start until like 20 minutes later! I don't mind the trailers for upcoming films, it offers a glimpse of the lineup that will be offered in the coming weeks. However, before the trailers start, they run commercials for bloody cars, drinks, you name it. I'm sorry, but I PAID to see a MOVIE not a COMMERCIAL. Sometimes I feel like strangling the genius who came up with this crap. I am happy to say that I have no interest in Finding Neverland, so they're not getting any of my money to support this ridiculous habit.

Oh.. Colour me embarassed.. :b

LOL

Now.. What I'd like to know is is there some way we could actually make a difference and perhaps have our voice heard, rather than piss and moan on this site about it..

I'm a follower, not a doer, so I'm hoping somebody has a petition going I can sign..

Commercials before MY movie = no $$ from me, do you understand that studios???

Somebody has got to draw the line somewhere and some idiot just stepped over it for a few more greenbacks. I was going to check out this movie but now I don't know, if I can find it used maybe.