Why Ad Breaks are So Annoying
Last updated: October 24, 2025
We all know the frustration that ad breaks can cause, from a brief moment of frustration to pure annoyance that drives us to turn the TV off. There is, frankly, nothing worse than being invested in a show or film, just for the ads to start and break us out of our focus. But what, exactly, is it about ads that causes us so much irritation? Is it just that they are breaking up engaging content, or is the reasoning more multi-layered than that? Let’s find out!
Ads aren’t Always Relevant
One of the biggest frustrations caused by adverts comes from the fact that they are made to appeal to a wide range of people, and because of this, end up so generic that they don’t really apply to anyone at all. Advertisements are a necessary part of life; they are a way many companies and individuals are able to make money, and they also keep us up to date with the wide range of products and services available to us. However, no one is going to feel excited by toothpaste, car insurance or any of the other unrelated ads we see on TV.
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Ads Always Come on at the Worst Moment
Ads are strategically placed midway through the intense moments of TV shows. The idea here is that you will be invested enough in what is going on in the show or film to stick around on the same channel and sit out the ads to get back to what you were watching. The problem with this, however, is that a lot of the time, ads actually break the emotional impact of intense moments in TV. Any buildup the show was creating is suddenly broken, and we are flung, quite unceremoniously, back into the real world. This means that a lot of the time, when we finally come back to the show, we’ve forgotten most of the thoughts and feelings we were experiencing before, and the continuation of the scene loses a lot of its impact.
Ads Cause us to Lose Interest in What We are Watching
Also, because ads tend to come at the worst moment in TV shows, the frustration is often enough to cause us to lose interest in what we were watching in the first place. Ads bring you out of the entertaining world of TV and film, and back into your own, which often leads us to remember the things we need or want to do. We’re then much more likely to switch off the TV altogether, rather than sit through the ads, causing us to miss out on whatever show or film had managed to catch our attention in the first place.
Ads Can be Grating
Another reason ad breaks cause us so much irritation comes from the nature of TV ads themselves. Not only do we often find ourselves watching the same ads over and over, meaning if they ever did interest us, they certainly don’t anymore, but many are designed to stick in your mind. Advertisements do this by using bright colours and catchy jingles that, although they are meant to capture our attention, often end up doing nothing more than annoying us. There’s nothing worse than having lyrics or phrases stuck in your head, and this is even more irritating if the phrase is just a tune about washing machine cleaner or shaving foam.
Ads Use Amateur Actors
A lot of ads don’t employ big-name actors to advertise their products and services, but rather individuals who are either at the start of their acting career or were just lucky enough to be around when the company advertised. What this means is that the people in TV ads aren’t usually the best at acting, and their performances can range from a bit cringy to straight-up infuriating. A lot of these actors feel fake, and the viewer can easily tell that they have no real passion for the product or service they have been paid to try and sell to us.
Ads Promote Over-Consumption
There is also something highly irritating about the way advertisements insist we continuously spend our money. Each one promises to offer the best product or the best service, and is often designed to make us feel like we need to part with our cash to avoid missing out. Our world moves very quickly, and at times it feels like all of it is governed by money. We work to make money, and we spend money to survive, but advertisements try to dictate where we spend our money, try to reel us in and make us feel like certain items are completely necessary to have a good life, when in reality, this is rarely the case. Ads don’t want us to second-guess ourselves; they want us to spend with abandon and spend on whatever it is that they are selling. It promotes overconsumption and unnecessary purchasing.
Conclusion
The reasons why ads are so annoying is certainly multi-layered. On the surface, TV advertisements are usually so generic that they have no meaning to us, and they often come at the worst times, breaking the tension and weakening the emotional impact of what we are watching. They can also cause us to lose interest in shows or films we were enjoying because of the way they suddenly throw us back into the ‘real world’. Ads themselves are also designed to be vibrant and catchy so that they stay in your mind, but when we see the same ones over and over, this does nothing more than make them extremely irritating, especially when you throw bad acting into the mix. But beyond all this, ads promote overconsumption, constantly urging us to spend money on things that, most of the time, we have no need for.
