Commercial Break

Aug 19, 2025

Is it time to invest in Youtube Premium? How much of my mental real estate is rented out to ad space? Netflix was created as a competitive replacement to commercial television and now it too has commercials. From life to death I will watch 50,000 car commercials and I do not have my driver’s licence. My times tables are iffy but I can name the make and model of any KIA, any year.

When I am flying to another country, awaiting foreign ads, I am marketed luxury watches as I sit in my economy seat. Does the refugee sitting beside me need a Rolex? Beside me: refugee escaping hardship. In front of us: Rolex ad. Yet the dial size is far too large for a budget airline arm rest.

There was a time when we were at least granted the illusion of choice. Flipping through magazines until a product glimmered off the page. Now there is an online database curating all the materials I'll need to make me, me. My feelings are dependent on Spotify’s daylist. Will tomorrow be coastal cowgirl Tuesday or acid rock Tuesday? My attention is auctioned to the highest bidder. My habits are tracked and sold.

Any and all media is monetized. I remember more pop-ups than poems. I’ve read more billboards than books. I know enough slogans to fill a library. I need a world without algorithms but the only way to move forward is to scroll.