Some of you may be wondering
why I haven’t posted this sooner. You see, every year, I count all the
Christmas commercials that I see before the Sunday after Thanksgiving. This
would include any and all shows that I recorded on VHS. So I had to get caught
up on all my old VHS tapes until I got to the equivalent of that time on my VHS
tapes. I even made sure that I wouldn’t watch anything else that I could have
just to get caught up on those old tapes. Now I just wish that I could stop
getting so behind in the first place. So my count is here as it will be every
year. Plus, I had to make sure other parts of this blog were updated as well.
But I should be here for regular postings for a good long while.
In
2012, the official count of Christmas commercials before October was 0. The
official count before Halloween was 27. The official count before the Sunday after
Thanksgiving was 200. In 2013, the official
count of Christmas commercials before October was 5. The official count before
Halloween was 30. The official count before the Sunday after Thanksgiving was 600.
The first Christmas commercial
of the year aired on September 5th in 2014. In 2014, the official
count of Christmas commercials before October was 3. The official count before
Halloween (list actually includes Christmas commercials that air on Halloween)
was 26. The official count before the Sunday after Thanksgiving was 700.
Rules of Christmas
commercials: You might be wondering what the rules for counting Christmas
commercials are. Remember that you start counting them from the moment that the
first one of the year airs until the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Starting with
that day, you don’t count anything. Well, a new rule would allow what are
deemed as Christmas commercials, even if they are just about returning gifts.
What kind of asshole would return a gift? If you don’t like a gift, then find
someone else who would enjoy it. Don’t be the person that returns a gift. Is it
that bad? Anyways, keep in mind that these January commercials do not count as
the first one of the year. For the record, the January commercials will count
in their own separate list and won’t be added with the grand total of all the
commercials. That is mainly because I don’t know if it should be with this year
or next year. Plus, with this number being missing from previous posts
(possibly because it is something new that just starting happening with the
most recent Christmas season), it wouldn’t be fair to include it in newer posts
like these. You can start anytime after back to school commercials start. Now
that I have the basic rules covered, I should tell you which commercials count
for the list and which ones don’t. This will mostly focus on what doesn’t
count. Plus, it’s ultimately one’s own decision what does and doesn’t count.
What counts: It doesn’t matter
how many times a single commercial airs, it adds to the count each time. Even
if you record something while you watch something else, commercials for both
shows will count. Just try to count the ones that air and don’t pass over them
on the recorded shows. There might be other rules that I can’t think of at the
moment. If it is a commercial for the “holidays” then it obviously counts as a
Christmas commercial. That rule is void if the holiday is actually
Thanksgiving, but don’t think you’ll see many of those. Be sure to have both
audio and visual for these commercials because what’s looks like one may not
sound like one and what sounds like one may not look like one. They may be
confusing either way.
What doesn’t count: It doesn’t
matter how much they parody Christmas songs or ideas, Black Friday commercials
are Black Friday commercials and will not ever count as Christmas commercials.
Only television ads count: no radio, internet, print, newspaper, or magazine
ads can count. Only commercials count for shows that you are watching. This
means that if you aren’t really watching a show, you are flipping between more
than one show, you left the TV on when you stopped watching, you haven’t
started watching anything yet, or you saw one in a show that someone else was
watching, then none of those count. If one happened while you were out of the
room, then it doesn’t count. If you are watching something that you recorded
and somehow miss on a Christmas commercial, then it won’t count. If you can’t
decide on whether or not a commercial counts as a Christmas commercial, then it
won’t count. Thanksgiving commercials don’t count and neither do any for winter
stuff. Commercials for Christmas movies don’t count. The same rule applies for
any Christmas related specials. If there are multiple type of commercials in
one single commercial such as black Friday with Christmas, then none of them
counts. Christmas stuff being shoehorned at the end of what is obviously not a
Christmas commercial doesn’t count. Well, it could, pending rule changes. You
know what? Since I’m not sure what things being shoehorned at the end would
mean, then you might as well ignore that last rule of mine since it might not
even make sense to me.
Note about political
commercials: I have noticed that in election years, there are far less
Christmas commercials than in nonelection years. I don’t know if this is a good
or a bad thing. This sounds like something that’s a problem either way. But, in
election years, I’ve noticed that political commercials are functionally
replaced by Christmas commercials. If there isn’t an election that year, then
you see a ton more Christmas commercials earlier. Either way, you’ll see a lot.
It’s just that you’ll see a notable less amount during election years. To make
up for it, you have to suffer through a ton of political commercials before the
onslaught of Christmas commercials after the election. Either way, you have to
suffer. But, not having to sit through the political commercials can actually
be a good thing, even if the only alternative is more Christmas commercials.
You may notice that even with a ton of political commercials this year, the
previous record was still broken. This makes me extremely worried for 2015 and
I wonder if we’ll get over triple digits. Yikes.
Christmas overrun for 2014-2015
is the number of 28 commercials. (Remember that these commercials will not be
added to either this year’s or next year’s list of commercials at they are the
overrun from December 25th onward, mostly around January when
commercials about returning gifts or other things of the sort are still airing.
I would have done this last year, but by the time I found out that these were
even airing, I couldn’t count any of them since I had been out of the country
at the time they would have started. So these are the overrun commercials.)
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