Remove the Nature Valley banner on VS campaign

[onepostfanboy]

Highly distressed at the intrusion of the "Commercial Free 30 minutes Nature Valley" Banner on VS during Stage 7 tonight. For those that saw it my guess is you had a similar reaction, as it blocked the upper left portion of the screen, and is visually difficult to not focus on it.

I've sent off e-mails to Nature Valley (General Mills) which I have little hope of having an impact, and to VS, which hopefully would be more responsive. Obviously one person won't make a diff, but many may. If you are a VS viewer, please join my protest.

Here are some links:

For Nature Valley:

http://consumercontacts.generalmills.com/ConsolidatedContact.aspx?page=http://www.naturevalley.com

From same page: If you prefer to contact us by telephone, please call us at 1-800-248-7310 between (7:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. CT, weekdays) If you prefer to send us a fax, send your fax to 1-763-764-8330. You can also write us a letter at our mailing address:

General Mills, Inc.
P.O. Box 9452
Minneapolis, MN 55440

For VS:

http://www.versus.com/article/view/744/?tf=footerArticles.tpl

VERSUS
Comcast Center
One Comcast Center
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Phone: 203-276-8000
Toll-Free 1-877-VERSUS-ON

Programming Inquiries or Viewer Feedback
feedback@versus.com

On-Air Advertising
adsales@versus.com

Obviously there going to do this at least on mountain top finishes as in past years they have done "commercial free" in the last 30 minutes.

It really need to stop. Your help is appreciated.

 

[grimpeur]

Good luck with that... Have you seen Phil's, Paul's and Bob's asses? They still have that stupid Volvo ad from last year tattooed on them. What the F doesn't have some commercial connection on Versus. It's all for sale, including the top left-hand section of the screen. How could it be "commercial free" if there's some lame logo there. Versus coverage sucks. Find a euro internet stream to avoid the aggravation. You'll be amazed to see what viewers get to watch outside of the Versus broadcasting realm.

 

[dgodave]

I would rather have nonstop race coverage for the whole race and deal with the Nature Valley banner....
.

 

[mr. tibbs]

I say remove the banner! It totally blocked Andy Schleck when he tried to follow Contador the other day, forcing him to drop back to the chase group.

 

[jaylew]

I say remove the banner! It totally blocked Andy Schleck when he tried to follow Contador the other day, forcing him to drop back to the chase group.

Awesome! I'm surprised he hasn't used that as an excuse yet.

 

[Anonymous]

awesome! I'm surprised he hasn't used that as an excuse yet.

rofl! N1...

 

[FFWally]

Good luck with that... Have you seen Phil's, Paul's and Bob's asses? They still have that stupid Volvo ad from last year tattooed on them. What the F doesn't have some commercial connection on Versus. It's all for sale, including the top left-hand section of the screen. How could it be "commercial free" if there's some lame logo there. Versus coverage sucks. Find a euro internet stream to avoid the aggravation. You'll be amazed to see what viewers get to watch outside of the Versus broadcasting realm.

Wow...spoiled are we now.

It wasn't too many years ago we got Weekly coverage on CBS with John Tesch commentary AND music. It was like watching NBC's olympic coverage. Mostly feel good stories and then some highlights of the week.

Then it was on to ESPN and we got all gooey over 30 minutes of coverage just before the 5pm eastern Sportscenter.

Finally we got actual live coverage on OLN (now VS) and for the first time as Americans got to see live coverage, and even days of 3-5 hour coverage.

So VS isn't perfect, Phil and Bob et all are so far better than the 80's-90's coverage I can't even begin to say thank you enough to Versus.

Yeah it is nice to get streaming coverage from elsewhere, but would it really be better to go back to CBS and Tesch???

 

[frizzlefry]

Here is what I got to watch as a teenager in the late 80's.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aujr-b4ndxY

Wow...spoiled are we now.

It wasn't too many years ago we got Weekly coverage on CBS with John Tesch commentary AND music. It was like watching NBC's olympic coverage. Mostly feel good stories and then some highlights of the week.

Then it was on to ESPN and we got all gooey over 30 minutes of coverage just before the 5pm eastern Sportscenter.

Finally we got actual live coverage on OLN (now VS) and for the first time as Americans got to see live coverage, and even days of 3-5 hour coverage.

So VS isn't perfect, Phil and Bob et all are so far better than the 80's-90's coverage I can't even begin to say thank you enough to Versus.

Yeah it is nice to get streaming coverage from elsewhere, but would it really be better to go back to CBS and Tesch???

 

[RightWingNutJob]

Ya, the coverage is light years ahead of what we had and now in HD as well. I am not complaining.

 

[Escarabajo]

I agree. Remove that banner. They can just put it at the bottom. Let's see what happens if they do it in a Football Game. It just shows how careless versus is about cycling.

 

[180mmCrank]

Here is what I got to watch as a teenager in the late 80's.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aujr-b4ndxY

Or more like this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTHhWf6BSEM&feature=related ... irritating or what.

The adverts are way more irritating than the graphics IMHO

 

[klodifan]

1. They should trim the banner so that it doesn't extend beyond what would be seen on a standard definition broadcast.

2. Make what's left of the logo transparent.

3. All things considered, thanks goodness it's in HD this year.

 

[lean mean &green]

I agree. Remove that banner. They can just put it at the bottom. Let's see what happens if they do it in a Football Game. It just shows how careless versus is about cycling.

Football (American) is much more TV friendly due to frequent stoppages in play, I get what you mean but there's no need for a commercial free half hour...

I love the idea of commercial free half-hour but that banner is in maybe the worst possible location. Just needs tweaking.

Versus live coverage in the morning is good. Phil and Paul aren't perfect but they're very good. Primetime with a heavy dose of Bob R is a problem. I think Bob would be good in very small doses. I think he would do a nice job with some recorded comedic vignettes but he's terrible live, often toungue tied, needs the luxury of editing.

 

[180mmCrank]

Football (American) is much more TV friendly due to frequent stoppages in play, I get what you mean but there's no need for a commercial free half hour...

I love the idea of commercial free half-hour but that banner is in maybe the worst possible location. Just needs tweaking.

Versus live coverage in the morning is good. Phil and Paul aren't perfect but they're very good. Primetime with a heavy dose of Bob R is a problem. I think Bob would be good in very small doses. I think he would do a nice job with some recorded comedic vignettes but he's terrible live, often toungue tied, needs the luxury of editing.

For me it's just the commercials every 10 mins and then 5 mins of magazine crappola - "let's look at Cancellara's seat?" - I long for when i was in UK and i could watch Eurosport hour upon lovely hour of just cycling...with the sean kelly for company... ooh I need to go and have a sit down i have come over all nostalgic

 

[Boleyn]

For me it's just the commercials every 10 mins and then 5 mins of magazine crappola - "let's look at Cancellara's seat?" - I long for when i was in UK and i could watch Eurosport hour upon lovely hour of just cycling...with the sean kelly for company... ooh I need to go and have a sit down i have come over all nostalgic

What annoys me is that they cut back to the studio for Hummer and Bob to talk BS for 5-10 minutes. What they should do is talk BS while showing the race. I do not have to see them in the studio to hear them.

The same with Matt White in the Team Car; show him in a small box in the corner.

The same wit the interviews.... I could go on and on.

Fortunately, I got a good foreign feed this morning. No interviews, no "interest stories", and only a small commercial break maybe twice an hour. Must have seen nearly 50 minutes of racing an hour not 10.

 

[BroDeal]

What annoys me is that they cut back to the studio for Hummer and Bob to talk BS for 5-10 minutes. What they should do is talk BS while showing the race. I do not have to see them in the studio to hear them.

The same with Matt White in the Team Car; show him in a small box in the corner.

The same wit the interviews.... I could go on and on.

Fortunately, I got a good foreign feed this morning. No interviews, no "interest stories", and only a small commercial break maybe twice an hour. Must have seen nearly 50 minutes of racing an hour not 10.

I watched a South African feed until that cut out on me. That was nice. Even though it is quality video, seeing more of the race makes up for it.

After it died I used Eurosport English audio in conjunction with a muted Versus.

 

[Boleyn]

I watched a South African feed until that cut out on me. That was nice. Even though it is quality video, seeing more of the race makes up for it.

After it died I used Eurosport English audio in conjunction with a muted Versus.

I was watching a South African feed that also died on me - Justin TV. However, there was another link directly below it on Steephill and they played through the finish.

 

[Fatclimber]

I'll deal with the logo, it beats the hell out of missing the race entirely. Like when we came back from a commercial break to find LA in the front end of a split where he gained 40 seconds on everybody.

I guess the bottom line is that cycling is far from a mainstream American sport, we just don't know what the hell we're doing yet. The announcers and analyzers all suck (Yes, even Phil when I know in my heart he meant to say "Contador" is coming across the line when he called him "Armstrong" instead), but there ain't a whole lot to choose from. Maybe Madden?

The coverage mostly sucks, especially with the millions of commercials every 37 seconds, but at least I get to watch it.

 

[dooshbomb]

It may be commercial free...but it's not Nature Valley free...

Make it go away!!! or at least move it to the lower left corner...I will never buy another nature valley granola bar again!!! Nature Valley sucks!!!!

 

[grimpeur]

Wow...spoiled are we now.

No not spoiled... disappointed. Have you ever seen what the rest of the world gets to see? If you had, you'd quickly see we're being taken for a ride by Versus. Sure, the coverage has changed, and it's stupid to compare it to the past... I'd say it's changed for the worse. Have you ever timed the "tires on the road" racing to the ads, promos, stupid swirling graphics and the terrible "dramatic" music? 25 min of racing for 35 minutes of ads and crap. And the commentating is dumbed down to the lowest common denominator. It's "Tour de France for Dummies." Enjoy...