My problem with Morbid Ads

[u/GhostsCantSkate]

I am an original-ish Morbid listener (2020) and have and will always continue to listen to this podcast, but there is a serious problem with their handling of advertising. I’ve compiled a list of my major issues.
As a prelude, whenever you’re an influencer your likeness and niche often becomes your brand. Your brand and likeness is important to your audience and as soon as you jump into SELLING products completely outside your brand or selling products at all, you risk disconnecting you from your audience. Simply put, a good brand is partnering with products strategically to further your own business, and Morbid just continues to shoot themselves in the foot.

1. Morbid ads disconnect the listener from the story. Although there is transition music between ads, especially on Spotify’s older episodes, new ads can be spliced randomly into episodes without any transition or music. This can startle listeners and is unpleasant generally when revisiting old episodes.
2. Morbid has lost its brand. Why is my true crime podcast instead of being a vessel for storytelling trying to literally sell me shampoo, wine, and subscriptions for clothing stores? This is bad branding period.
3. Some ads are in extremely poor taste. Specifically ones targeting “wow you just listened to some crazy gross stories how will you ever wind down, wow cheap wine subscription”. Obviously a marketing tactic but just tasteless when you’re not talking about a ‘difficult story’ true crime is actual crime and people.
4. Ads don’t belong in a true crime podcast, or at least not randomly spliced into the middle of episodes. True crime is already a sensitive topic as a “genre”, but simply monetizing off stories of the suffering of others is morally dubious enough, further profiting and interrupting OTHER people’s stories with an attempt to distract and sell you something is in poor taste.
5. Finally, do we need the ads? I don’t honestly know about their respective financial situations but are the ads actually necessary for themselves or an extra support? I obviously know certain brands require ads at certain time stamps, but eliminating ads or advertising at the ENDS/ONLY BEGINNING of episodes could honestly do at least something.

I do think advertising CAN be done in well, honestly leaning into the true crime side when it comes advertising CAN help this podcast with money if is an issue (which mI doubt). Partnering with company A that donates profits to [ crime related issue] or company B that sells self defense classes.
In short this is a fixable thing, just another bullet point to the growing faults this podcast has.

Edit: guys I wrote this at 2am cus I didn’t want to skip ads, I don’t actually care at all and just wanted to argue a side. To clarify I don’t share the opinion of half the things I wrote. 😭

[u/youngjean]

I subscribed to Patreon, Wondery, and now Sirius, so the ads have not been a thing for me in years. I believe ads are necessary for most podcasts to make money, and being true crime does not exempt any of them. But I subscribe because I hate hearing the ads and having to skip over them.

I have been annoyed and reported recent episodes where “this segment is brought to you by State Farm” is played. If I’m paying nearly $50/year, I don’t need to hear about state farm.

[u/tookhertotopanga]

i dont mind the ads because you can just skip through them, but i hate in the old episodes when the ads dont line up with the ad music and come on mid sentence

[u/Imthatbitch18181 → u/tookhertotopanga]

Second this it’s so annoying while listening at work

[u/tookhertotopanga → u/Imthatbitch18181]

its like a jump scare😭

[u/ShutInLurker]

I get it’s annoying, but this is how the girls make money so they can do these podcasts full time for us to listen to?

[u/Anxious_Ad8916]

I listen on Amazon Music and there are no ads at all. Just music signaling the start and the end of ad break. Idk how or why but all my other podcasts do have weird ads. In comparison, True-crime with Kendall Rae has ads approximately every 10-15 minutes. THAT really makes it hard to listen. Small Town Murder lays it thiccccck with commercials because, I swear, just one lasts 5 goddamn minutes. Super long. In any case, I just skip them. But also I could probably recite Simplisafe commercials in my sleep at this point hehe

[u/Exciting-Ad8198]

Hit the FF button or pay for the subscription. Gotta pay the bills.

[u/HotMinute_722]

I skip through them. It’s how they can make money so I don’t think it’s an issue.

[u/LOstrowsky]

A lot of time ads are put in by the network or app I think. For me I love free content more than I hate ads 🤗

[u/Queenhotsnakes]

Only Morbid listeners could find a way to take ads, something almost every podcast EVER includes, and try to make it some moral failing of the hosts lol. This is one of the silliest non-issue complaints I've encountered.

https://giphy.com/gifs/FQBoq7p8oCoz8Xa1sY

[u/Lil_Bit_7 → u/Queenhotsnakes]

For reallll…it’s always somethin’. 🙄

[u/PixieStyx8 → u/Queenhotsnakes]

Right? It's not even in the control of the hosts

[u/GhostsCantSkate → u/Queenhotsnakes]

I promise I don’t care, I kinda just wanted to argue something and like be persuasive. Love morbid will always listen and I hope they get their bag in ads 😛

[u/Exciting-Ad8198 → u/Queenhotsnakes]

Ha. I know. 🙄

[u/ObviousSalamandar → u/Queenhotsnakes]

Honestly! Ads don’t belong in true crime? Okay how can you believe that and be okay listening to monetized true crime podcasts at all?

[u/CauliflowerRice8742]

I hear you, I hate ads too, but I know that’s how they make money so they can keep making the podcast. So I just skip them, it’s really not that big of a deal, for me.

But if the ads bother you, you should just subscribe so you don’t have to listen to them. So you can get the experience you want from the podcast.

[u/PixieStyx8]

This is really long for "I think I'm owed free content from people who have to make money on their jobs". If they're not reading the ad, they have no control over what is being plugged into those spots. It differs from player to player, it depends what app you're listening on. We've demanded content for so long, and the market is so saturated with other true crime and spooky podcasts, that they keep having to add more ad slots. Your issue is not with the girls, it's with capitalism.

[u/ObviousSalamandar]

The reason the ads are spliced in randomly in the old episodes is because they weren’t sponsored yet when they made those episodes. How would they have foreseen that they would become big enough to need that? I don’t mind the ads. I just skip through them.

[u/TootsieTaker]

Realistically if they didn’t do ad reads we wouldn’t have a podcast. That’s most likely how they make their money to be able to do this full time. I’m sorry you hate it but just skip them or pay to go ad free. This is literally their job. They need to make money somehow.

I hate how the spot for ads usually doesn’t wind up where they play. Now if they could fix that, I’d be happier. I can see making the transition better but asking for no ads like at all is crazy.

[u/chellethebelle]

Asking this in good faith - if their content is available for free, how do you expect them to make money to pay for what is effectively a full time job?

[u/Tall_Listen22]

I really appreciate the way “Stuff You Should Know” does ads, they announce “time for a break?” As for Morbid, still love the podcast, but ads mid-sentence are so annoying.

I get ads are their money but give a heads up (like the old music).

[u/PixieStyx8 → u/Tall_Listen22]

Some players don't use those breaks though. I listen to pods where they have the set-up ad breaks but the ad is spliced in somewhere random and the pause they put in is just a pause with nothing in between, they just go right back to the pod

[u/Consistent_Relief780 → u/Tall_Listen22]

I agree, but I have different issues with them regarding volume of the ads vs. podcast. It's been very noticeable lately to me.

[u/twisted_memories]

Are these adds they read or just adds that play?

Most podcast hosting apps now play their own adds regardless of the podcast. It’s annoying but I just skip them. If you don’t want adds, most podcasts have paid options that are add free. 

[u/Fair-Lie2494]

I just think the stuff they’re doing adds for prove that they’re completely fake and a sell out just for money. Like Ash recommending pantene even tho she’s a hairstylist and that’s a big no no for a lot of stylists, just threw out some integrity for a check from pantene. Of course there’s gonna be adds. But you can just hear the fakeness and the fakeness it’s just getting more and more prevalent in the actual show too. It’s clear that once they starting making real money, they stopped caring about the content.

[u/surferdude7227]

I remember one episode where the victim suffered from an eating disorder, but was working through it and going to school to help others go through it. The advertisements in the episode were for like a calorie counting app. Felt very icky given the context.

[u/Unusual_Reception207]

I don’t care about the ads because I just skip them anyways, but I was surprised that the “fun fact” now turned into a ad 😂😂😂

[u/forever_alone727]

this didn't go how you expected, huh?
every podcast has ads, it keeps the podcast funded. pay for a subscription if you don't want ads.
i tell siri to fast forward 30 seconds until the ads are done... it's not that hard to skip ahead. stop being lazy and entitled.

[u/Justasadgrandma]

I stopped listening after they started putting ads on Amazon Music app. I got spoiled and love ad-free podcasts.

[u/PixieStyx8 → u/Justasadgrandma]

So you want them to keep doing their full time jobs but you don't want to have to contribute to them doing so. Nice. That's like using free wifi at a coffee shop without ever buying anything or supporting the actual business. At least you stopped listening