I have essentially the equivalent of expanded cable in my hotel room out on the West Coast. This is more than we have at home. I don't miss it, but cop shows can be entertaining. 😉
A majority of the ads this late at night (the ones that weren't for performance enhancement products) revolve around getting into more debt or getting out of debt. Here's what I've seen:
- An advertisement for private student loans. (After checking out the website, I found out that the loans had deferred payment options, had adjustable interest rates, and repayment terms up to 20 years.)
- An offer of debt reduction legal services. (Only people with $10,000 or more in debt need apply.)
- An advertisement for getting a computer system on credit. (There was no credit check, and I could skip a payment if I wanted.)
The ads wouldn't be in these time slots if they didn't turn a profit. People who are pre-disposed to responding to these ads are watching. The services advertised that I listed above are almost certainly very expensive. The advertisers want them to call right then when they are vulnerable.
It's probably wise to not respond to an advertisement for debt consolidation. Writing down the number is fine if it's intriguing, but 3 AM is not the time to call if it's near or past bedtime. A smooth-talking salesperson will get credit card information and sign up the caller. They're not there to answer questions; they're there to sell. If there was a price advertised, they will try to sell all sorts of other things when you're on the phone. (This was my experience with a work-at-home program I ordered about ten years ago.) If they won't answer specific questions about the service, or give you a website where you can get them answered, then it's probably a bad idea to sign up.
If you're in debt and you catch one of these late-night ads, my suggestion would be to evaluate the service offered in the ad and other options in the morning. Things are more urgent under duress and when one is tired, and the promise of a solution at that time of night is a siren's song. Some sleep will help to let you look at your debt situation more objectively.
“Are you in debt? Are you up at 3am watching this commercial? If so, you aren’t working hard enough! No need to call us, just go to sleep and get a job tomorrow!”
🙂
I work all night and my patients often have the TV on for background noise so they don't have to hear the beep of monitors and inhuman screams of neighbors. What has always intrigued me is that commercials can be split up into a few catagories.
1. Debt consolidation, which you covered very well.
2. Vice. Mostly offshore gambling and phone sex lines. Also girls gone wild.
3. Military. I always thought it was really sly to show military recruiting commercials at 3am on Cartoon network.
Lack of money, lack of companionship and lack of something to do. People in the wee hours of the morning are not trying to solve your problems, they are just trying to make a buck. Don't include the military in that though. They are trying to protect us and I really appriciate each and every soldier, even if they were recruited between episodes of Scooby Doo.
Jimbo the Great