Closed Captioning

I stopped watching TV a few years ago because I couldn’t hear it and am now slowly dragging myself back into the habit. TV shows and sports events are all captioned, and sometimes I get to see some pretty funny stuff (see above from the internet) but, oddly, many commercials are not CC. This is strange to me because most deaf folks have money to spend. If you are a business, it makes sense to use all available tools to get your product name out to the widest available audience.
On this fine Sunday morning, I channel-surfed for an hour and made a short list of commercials with and without captioning.
Some notes:
1. You do not want to read the captioning for drug commercials. The side effects are horrifying.
2. Harry Reid is running for re-election as Nevada’s senior U.S. senator and his commercials are CC. The commercials for his two opponents, Sharron Angle and Sue Lowden, are not closed captioned. Nevada gubernatorial candidate Brian Sandoval doesn’t have closed captioning, either.
3. For purposes of full disclosure, the “*” below indicates I am a customer. Also, I voted for Reid in past, I don’t remember if I voted for Sandoval when he ran for Nevada Attorney General in 2002, and Angle/Lowden have not appeared in races on my ballot.
These commercials were not closed captioned (alphabetically):
Assurant Health (health insurance)
Beezid.com
Brain Sandoval (Candidate for NV Governor)
Charter Communications
Chemistry.com
DirectTV
DishTV*
EAS Nutrition
ESPN World Cup Soccer
Fox Soccer
Franklin Templeton Investments
Gamefly.com
George Foreman Grills
IHOP*
Jared’s Jewelers
Long John Silver
Metlife
Purina Beneful
Restasis (drugs)
Sharron Angle (PAC Commerical; NV Candidate for U.S. Senate)
Stacy’s Pita Chips
Sue Lowden (NV Candidate for U.S. Senate)
Texas (tourism agency)
WEtv.com commercials
Zappos.com
These commercials were closed captioned (alphabetically):
1-800-Contacts
Bayer
Cheerios*
Cheetos
Coolmint Icebreakers*
Dial NutriSkin
Harry Reid (NV Candidate for US Senate)
Kodak Printers
Lipitor (drugs)
Neutrogina
Totini’s Pizza
Yoplait*
