How did our short attention span happen?

Took my family to Captain America:Civil War and we sat thru 20 minutes of commercials before the previews. I understand why they show commercials, but here’s the thing, there were commercials…there were vignettes…there were commercials disguised as vignettes and when it was all done the movie theater showed a two-minute summary of all the commercials and vignettes we’d just seen.

“Thanks for watching, we’ve seen how Coke can make you smile, how the Air Force is helping change lives, how M&M’s are happy to have a candy coating and the love a stray dog has for its family after it’s adopted from the SPCA”

Didn’t I just sit thru all those commercials? Do they think I forgot them already? It’s like reality TV shows that come out of commercials and summarize what I saw before the commercials…then give me two minutes of new content before spending two more minutes summarizing what I just saw and how I’ll be amazed at what happens next. Really?!?! Do you think I’m that incapable of remembering the two minutes of show I just saw?  Obviously the answer is yes.

Here’s the thing I find fascinating…movie theaters summarize  commercials because we, the audience, have short attention spans and the commercials are a very important revenue stream. They want to make extra sure we remember the products and buy the products. That way the  advertiser will buy more ads and the theater will make more money. (Nothing wrong with that) . But wait, how come they don’t summarize the 20 minutes of previews I sat thru? My guess…they don’t make nearly the same amount of money on the movies as they do on the advertising. If they’re going to battle against my short attention span…it’s better I remember the advertisers than the coming attractions.

Btw, loved the movie…but I don’t remember what it was about.