Perhaps this is not going to bring joy to your household this season but it surely will mine.

The reason the ads are louder is that the advertisers know that during commercial breaks, people head for the refrigerator—in other words, they don’t want to watch the ads.

Instead of producing more interesting or compelling ads, they chased viewers with noise.

This item says that the congresswoman who introduced the bill said the industry’s voluntary system (Who knew they had one?) was not working.

Besides, a heavy diet of aural noise as loud as these ads are is bad for kids.

BBC

“The US House of Representatives has approved a bill which aims to limit the volume of television advertisements.

“The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act (CALM) was approved by a voice vote in the house.

“Democrat Anna Eshoo, who filed the motion, said most Americans were willing to tolerate adverts but were annoyed by sudden volume increases.

“She said broadcasting industry’s current voluntary system had failed to deal with the issue.

“The CALM bill means that within a year, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) must introduce guidelines proposed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) in November.”

Source: BBC, December 16, 2009