Now that the playoffs are behind us for another season (no Rockies, sniff), I am reminded of the hell that was 2007’s baseball playoffs and the obtrusive, gigantic, mondo annoying ads for the seemingly soon-to-fail Frank TV.  (Why yes, that is a portrait of the lunatics at Bedlam to the right.)  Fast-forward one year and Frank TV is still on the air and…wait?!  I still know that show’s name!

It just goes to show that no matter how annoying the means (visual overload and virtual harassment), the end (brand recognition) is king.  Does TBS care that I hate Frank TV?  Nope.  That I know about it is enough.

Whether I will watch it remains to be seen…I found the ads just too irritating.  But for name recognition, obtrusiveness and in-your-face repetition seems to do the trick.  Over-the-top, spewing from the corner ads are just another incarnation of the kid in school who put her hand up first, wriggling from head to toe, just patient enough to wait until she was called on…guess which kid I was?

Moral of the story:  Be noticed.  But not annoying.

• Old New York Times article on the phenomenon
• Mental Floss weighs in
• The Day The News Crawl Was Born (the ad-from-hell’s cousin, the news ticker)
• More about the show we all love to hate