What's With All The Beeping?!

OK, at first I thought it was just me. But now I’m quite sure that the mavens of Madison Ave. have a new arrow in their arsenal of attention grabbing –- le beep.

They are peppering any and all commercials and TV shows with beeps, bops and bings in order to jerk our attention back to them and their sales pitches. The sounds are buried in the music or tucked into actors’ cell phones, instant messages, dashboards and so on. People may not be overtly aware it's happening, but our dog sure is and he tipped me off.

Like a canary in a coal mine, Duncan is the measure of just how much beeping is going on. Because he was well trained to his invisible fence, he pays immediate attention to the sound of a beep. To him it means “Warning, warning! Danger, Run away!!” So he does.

But now he can barely stay in the same room with us when the TV is on. During the shows, equipment and music are beeping. During the commercials even more beeping. The poor guy is a nervous wreck!

Can we be the only people having trouble with this? I’m picturing dogs across America having nervous breakdowns not knowing where to go to flee the warnings. Perhaps it’s yet another reason to turn off the damn TV and go do something constructive.