#ad breaks

[fofi42]

Alex, breaks, hands and Patatas

[radarsteddybear]

Hot take: ad breaks in TV shows are good actually

[theedgeofhappiness]

Also the french advert bit, pardon my/his french was a missed opportunity

[cinema-hallucinations]

Prompt: create a movie concept for a feature-length movie with a gimmick of the story being told entirely through fictional advertising spots. The movie chronicles huge social changes through society via the progressive changes in the advertisement for media offerings (new shows/movies/video games etc.), new products and businesses, clinical trials, lawsuit, hirings, government services and other PR campaigns etc.

Title: Slogans

Tagline: A story of ad breaks and gloop.

Logline: Decades of social upheaval are chronicled entirely through a series of hilarious and satirical commercials, reflecting the ever-changing landscape of a society struggling to adapt to the arrival of benign, but incredibly messy, aliens.

Concept: The film unfolds through a series of interconnected fictional commercials spanning several decades. Each ad campaign reflects the evolving societal response to the arrival of a race of friendly, but incredibly messy, aliens called the "Glorbs."

Examples of Ads:

Early Days (1970s): A wholesome family commercial for "Glorb-Be-Gone" cleaning spray, promising to eliminate the sticky green slime the Glorbs leave in their wake.

The Honeymoon Phase (1980s): A glitzy ad for "Glorb Gear" - stylish jumpsuits designed to protect against the Glorbs' unpredictable "bio-spray."

Inter-Species Dating Boom (1990s): A cheesy dating show ad for "Glorb-al Attraction," promising to find love between humans and Glorbs (despite their vastly different physical forms).

Glorb-onomics (2000s): A slick corporate ad for "Glorb-Co," a company utilizing the Glorbs' natural slime production for a new line of eco-friendly cleaning products.

The Grunge Years (2010s): A gritty commercial for "Glorb-Fighter 5000," a high-powered cleaning robot designed for the truly dedicated Glorb-haters.

The Rise of the Glorb Lobby (2020s): A heartwarming PSA from the "Glorb Integration Initiative," advocating for equal rights for the messy extraterrestrials.

Interspersed between these ads are glimpses of news reports, political debates, and legal battles reflecting the changing social climate. A class-action lawsuit against Glorb-Co for "bio-hazard negligence" transitions into a documentary on the rise of a powerful Glorb lobby pushing for "Glorb-Positive" legislation.

The humor comes from the absurdity of the changing social dynamics, the exaggerated efficiency of the cleaning products, and the ever-present Glorb slime that seems to permeate every aspect of human life.

Themes:

The challenges of interspecies coexistence.

The power of advertising to shape public opinion.

The human capacity to adapt, even to the messiest situations.

Ending:

The final ad campaign depicts a utopian future where humans and Glorbs live in harmony. A new product called "Glorb-Tastic Slime" is marketed as a fun, gooey toy for children, showcasing how even the most disruptive change can be normalized over time.

Slogans is a humorous and thought-provoking exploration of social change and adaptation in the face of the unexpected. It's a reminder that sometimes, the most profound stories can be told through the most mundane means – even a commercial for slime remover.

[blazehedgehog]

So a couple days ago I decided to turn down my ad frequency on Twitch because everybody complains about it, even if there are guides by big twitch streamers saying its fine. Well, today Twitch just implemented an "automatic length" feature that means I can't turn it down anymore.

The way it works is: show more ads, get a better earnings percentage. 30% by default, 55% if you exceed a threshold of ads per minute. It was a nudge to encourage you to crank ad frequency up, and like I said, I found guides by bigger Twitch streamers like "put it as high as it will go, you have nothing to lose."

(This is a generalization: the idea was that a huge block of ads every hour was less obtrusive than smaller breaks closer together, because longer uninterrupted chunks was better while still getting you a good earnings rate.)

So I cranked it to max as instructed: three minutes of ads every hour. 55% share percentage. And in every single stream, literally half my viewership would complain whenever they'd hit a giant block of ads.

Twitch had two sliders: ad length and ad frequency, and you could adjust them independently to find the right sweet spot and still hopefully nail that 55% earnings rate. So, I tried to find a way to turn down ad length while also not getting to be too annoying about ad frequency.

But hitting that 55% is hard. Twitch wants you to watch so many ads, friends. The shorter the ad breaks, the more frequently they want you to have them. Cutting ad breaks shorter by 30 seconds means seeing a break 25% sooner.

3 minutes of ads every hour then becomes 2 minutes of ads every 30 minutes. That's not a very fair ratio, and I think that's the point. Again: they want you to max this stuff out, not be kind to your viewers.

I figured we'd try 150 seconds of breaks (down from 180) every 45 minutes. Just a nudge down from where it was.

Now... I can't do that. They introduced this "automatic length" setting, which removes your ability to set length/frequency independently even if you turn it off. Two sliders become one.

If I want to hit that 150 second break threshold that previously kept my 55% share rate, it now FORCES it down to 30% earnings, because it only calculates per hour now. There is no "150sec/45min" setting anymore, just "150sec/hour".

On the other hand, they will GLADLY let you crank it up to 3 minutes of ads every 8 minutes of stream. No problems there. By all means, make 40% of your stream an ad break. We don't care. Go nuts.

Apologies in advance to all my viewers but I think Twitch literally took the tools out of my hands just now to make this better. There is no way to set it to less than "3 minutes per hour" and still earn that 55% anymore.

[hinamie]

thank u canon plant nerd megumi for my life

bonus:

[eriochromatic]

winter outing featuring cross guild and company 🌨️🌨️🌨️

[s0fter-sin]

something people just don’t think about is how often chronically ill and disabled people just don’t have access to good food. not healthy food, good food; well made, tasty meals that don’t come from a jar or a freezer. how many of us are housebound or can’t drive? delivery services only offer within certain distances, if you live outside a city they aren’t an option. many people don’t have the energy or ability to cook for themselves if they have the skill to begin with. many certainly don’t have the ability to learn how. it’s something that goes completely unnoticed, just the opportunity to have a good meal and how much that wears you down

[tsunosagun]

i flew too high, please catch my fall

[ganondoodle]

the full page of radahn doodles bc i love him :3

(Radahn, Elden Ring)

[t-u-i-t-c]

Giftober 2024 │ Day 23: Fourth Wall

"Destroying Toei Studio would be even faster!"

[aroaceleovaldez]

how Nico functions narratively as a character is always extremely funny to me because he has like, exactly 3 modes: exposition, damsel, and dues ex machina.

Exposition Mode is usually whenever Annabeth (#1 designated exposition character. #2 is Grover or insert mythological figure of the hour here. #3 is Nico) or someone else isn't around to exposition for the present cast. He has an excuse to somehow randomly know everything and everyone, no matter what, especially if it's relevant to the plot. He'll randomly develop new skills or personal arcs purely as an excuse to put him in situations where he can exposition, such as him being able to gain insight into the future/prophecies via ghosts (which is a thing in Greek mythology, but still). This is actually why it's extremely difficult for him to function as a POV character in a stand-alone story or first book of a series, because the way Riordanverse functions, the POV almost always only has as much information as the audience going into things and a secondary character explains information to them as they go along, unless it's later on into a series and it makes sense for the characters and/or audience to know that already. That's why Nico doesn't function well as a POV for TSATS but Will would work fine, because Nico's designated narrative role is Knowing Everything/Everyone, Somehow (particularly relating to the Underworld).

Damsel: he just gets kidnapped a ridiculous amount of times. Also that plus his penchant for passing out means there is ample opportunity for scenarios where Nico, despite being extremely powerful, needs to be rescued. Pairing this with how he's always off doing absolutely anything, absolutely anywhere, and somehow knows everybody, he's a perfect means to push the plot forward with an easy "oh no we need to rescue/protect Nico for the millionth time" side-quest or addition to stakes at hand. Or, similarly, if you need to take Nico out of the equation for a bit because he's too powerful and would fix it immediately: oops he passed out/needs to be protected/is kidnapped/etc.

And then as mentioned before - Deus ex machina, kinda literally. Nico is extremely overpowered for a reason; Because he's the catch-all solution to every problem. Just throw Nico at it. We can BS a new epic power for him that vaguely makes sense and yeah he's just that powerful and will pass out because of it probably. Yeah sure he can rip people's souls out and instakill things. Yeah he can teleport anything anywhere under essentially any circumstances. He'll just be a little sleepy. A lil eepy. He needs to take a lil nap. It's fine.

Basically. Solution to literally every situation in the Riordanverse: Throw Nico at it. Just throw Nico at it. It'll make sense. It'll work. Unless he's the primary POV in a stand-alone novel, short story, or first book in a series. Then it won't make any sense because you suddenly have to backtrack like 2/3 of Nico's entire narrative functions and suddenly he is Only A Damsel.

[springypaws]

Why in the world do so many memes/joke images do nothing but remind me of this man.

How can a game be so good with a protagonist who’s literally a walking meme (I say this with so much platonic affection 💋)

Plus the original image:

[deep-space-lines]

I MADE MYSELF AN EARTHMOVER

The idea that earthmover plushie was something i could realistically maybe make was beamed into my brain on friday may 10th at exactly 11:23 PM and then proceeded to consume my entire weekend. i did not know if this would work but i did it. i made him. my weird lopsided dog Benjamin

(I'd be happy to write up the pattern/instructions if people are interested- I think it'd be pretty simple to recreate since he's like 90% rectangles- but be warned that I have never tried to draft a plushie pattern from scratch before and it's kinda janky as hell the way the legs are attached feels like one of those illegal lego techniques so you have to promise not to make fun of me ok)