I remember how it started. A nondescript transparent station logo in the bottom right-hand corner of an up and coming music channel. You remember it, don't you? The little gray "VH1" logo from the late 80s, early 90s?
It stayed on just that channel for a long time. None of the other TV stations had picked up on it. Soon, a few other channels picked up on the idea, and began displaying their logo in the bottom right-hand corner of your TV screen. More followed.
Today, damn near every TV station has its logo populating that corner. CBS, NBC, UPN, Travel Channel, AMC, Discovery, TLC. Comedy Central - They all have it. Even local stations have it. Most take after the VH1 style, and have a simple grey translucent logo, but others have expanded on it. Have you seen TBS's TV Station Icon? It's disgusting! Normally, it just says:
SUPERSTATION
..but the idiots in marketing thought it would be cool to animate the logo using explosions and text effects! Now, what should be an unintrusive station ID logo now animates and fills up to 1/4th of the screen at times. And since these logos never air during commercials, your attention is diverted to this silly animating logo during the TV show you are trying to watch.
And no, it's not animating for the hell of it. It's animating to advertise! "Watch WWF vs. WCW Tonight at 8!" (Explosion) "Only on TBS!" (Blue Flame effects) SUPERSTATION
Isn't it enough that we have commercials? Now you have to advertise during the TV show itself? I mean damn. How long before we see toothpaste ads scrolling across the bottom of the screen while Star Trek is on? It's sickening.
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EVERYTHING