LG puts ads on their expensive TVs, I hate it

LG has started testing ad display on its TVs, and yes, that includes expensive OLED models.

The company’s advertising arm, LG Ad Solutions, earlier this year unveiled a new full-screen advertising unit that appears when the TV is in standby mode. Recently, a TV review blog HD flat panels tested the high-end LG G4 OLED TV and found that the devices delivered to homes display interstitials before the screen saver is activated.

The ad they saw was for LG FAST’s free “LG Channels” channel service, but the examples shown earlier this year appear to be for third-party things like cars and more. The publication also mentioned that the ad they saw was muted, but it’s unclear if this will be the case for all ads.

In a Sept. 5 press release from LG Ad Solutions, the company appears to be proud of its “native screensaver ads” that can appear on LG’s home screen, Channels app, and LG TV content store. In a press release, Chris Weiland, director of product marketing at LG Ad Solutions, said: “The launch of our screensaver ads was a significant milestone in driving engagement with viewers using LG Smart TVs. This interstitial ad format effectively uses screen idle time to increase brand visibility. “Feedback and research have confirmed that these ads attract attention and generate meaningful interactions, making them an integral part of our advertising offering.”

You can read the full press release here, but the funny thing is that LG has clearly done research on this ad format and is acting like it pioneered a technology that has been used in cheap, low-end TVs for years. This is not a good look for a company usually known for offering high-end products.

That being said, if you haven’t made the decision to purchase an LG OLED TV, screen saver options on LG TVs have been cheap for years. Personally, I often recommend that my friends buy LG TVs because I trust the company’s color accuracy and Samsung often seems too purple to me. That said, my friends finally took my tech advice and bought an LG NanoCell LED TV, and while it’s great, it doesn’t live up to the $1,400 price tag in my opinion. The backlighting is quite harsh (don’t tell them I was secretly checking their TV, they don’t notice such things) and the screensaver is a joke. Unlike OLED TVs, where LG has an art store where you can purchase photos to use as screensavers, the NanoCell line only has four stock images available. One is a beach in French Polynesia, the second is an old building in Austria, and the third is a German bridge. I don’t remember the last one, but every time I see it it screams “basic stock image.” The other day I tried to load more photos onto the TV because we found stock images in the “Sample” section of the TV’s file management app, but there was no way to get it to work and we ended up deleting the beach photo, so now they only have three screensaver images.

It really seems like most people don’t care much about screensavers, but it seems incredibly incongruous to me that LG offers an art store on its OLED TVs and yet considers other models too cheap to have access to them. I mean, $1,400 isn’t a cheap TV these days, and loading it with software you’d expect to find on a low-end laptop from 2003 makes it seem like the company just doesn’t care, which I think is not a good idea. appearance and would force me to buy an Apple TV because Apple has the best screensavers by a huge margin. Google/Android TV also offers interesting options. I really like the ability to use my own photos or cool satellite photos from Maps. However, Google TV also displays ads on the home screen, which I’m obviously not a fan of.

The ads aren’t good either. The other day I ordered a smore McFlurry from McDonalds and the button said “Order Now.” My girlfriend and I were curious, so we clicked on it, expecting the ad to go backdoor through Uber Eats or Doordash and allow us to quickly order a McFlurry, but instead it opened YouTube and just played a McDonald’s ad. Great stuff, and honestly, this misdirection annoyed me more than it made me want to get off the couch and go to the McDonalds down the street.

After all this, you may be wondering why my headline says that LG has dropped to my least favorite brand. Basically, TVs are expensive and in the past I haven’t minded paying that amount to get a premium experience, but if I’m going to pay that much for a TV that’s still going to be full of ads and crappy software, the value disappears, and if the value disappears, why not just buy it a cheaper TV and a nicer decoder.

Source: LG Ad Solutions, HD flat panels

Image source: HD flat panels