Interrupting Me Does Not Make Me Like You

I was watching Biggest Loser on NBC tonight and noticed they had placed a watermark on the bottom left of my screen to promote their new program, The Voice.  Now, we've all seen these type of ads and grown accustomed to everything from a subtle watermark to people dancing on the screen while we're trying to watch the program we tuned in for.

But, this one was a new breed.  Not only did it stay on the bottom of my screen but, it counted down the number of minutes until The Voice was to begin.  The Voice in 59 Minutes, The Voice in 58 Minutes, The Voice in 57 Minutes.  Add to this that during every commercial break there was an ad for, you guessed it, The Voice!

Now, I might have been interested in checking out The Voice before this barrage commenced.  But, now I was being bludgeoned by interruptions!  Not only was this practice irritating, it also reduced the chances of me ever watching The Voice out of protest.  As an added consequence, this constant advertising made my experience of watching Biggest Loser much less enjoyable.

When I was in fifth grade our class would sometimes get loud and a bit unruly.  I noticed that our fabulous instructor, Mrs. Mitchell would whisper during these occasions rather than shout above the noise.  This forced our class to quickly settle down and tune in because we thought we might miss something important.  I think NBC could learn a valuable lesson from Mrs. Mitchell.