Southern Survival: It's a decent show but it concerns me that it is popular

This show is pretty funny because it is a group of country boys that are not at all ashamed of the fact that they are country boys that are testing out survival gear using rather unorthodox methods of doing so such as home made flamethrowers and various explosives that are frankly, rather fun to watch.

Each episode is only 30 minutes long so it is easy to get involved in and it is low-commitment. Also, none of the episodes are related to previous episodes so you won't be without a backstory if you start somewhere in the middle. These aspects of the show are good.

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I watched an episode about knives where they showed the various benefits of each kind of knife and I learned a lot about how a really good knife can cost hundreds of dollars but it has so many purposes and will basically never break so I suppose it is understandable that they would cost that much.

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They don't just show off their super-cool knives, they give small tutorials on how to use a knife for survival and give some great tips on starting fires properly and what not and they do it with a sense of humor that keeps you interested. I give them props for this because the show is produced in a fantastic way the never lulls.

But then there is the other aspect of this show and it kind of concerns me....

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I don't know if the widespread popularity of this show is real or if Netflix is just pushing it and lying to make us think it is popular. I don't have any idea how that works but since Netflix isn't a charity I wouldn't be at all surprised if they weren't being exactly forthcoming about the ratings of each individual series or show.

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The thing that worries me about this show is the fact that each episode is basically and entertaining yet very obvious 30 minute long advertisement for various products. Marketing products took a massive hit when streaming services took over the entertainment world, and manufacturers of various products haven't really had and way of duping us into hearing about their products in lieu of the 2 minutes of adverts every 10 minutes or so that a network channel would have.

For every 3 minute segment that the boys (and a girl) spend setting stuff on fire and messing with one another, they spend 2 minutes plugging some particular product. This is done in a very creative way but even the place that the show takes place is a rather enormous business called BatlBox and the entire show is not just an advertisement for the various products they feature, but also for their own brand.

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There is a TON of money in advertising but in recent years manufacturers of stuff have kind of been at a loss as to how they can create a captive audience situation since DVR's made it really easy to skip commercials on cable / satellite, adblockers took care of targeted marketing online, and streaming services never had any advertising outside of product placement in movies and shows.

It would be funny to me if the people that were able to crack this code were some good ol' boys with beards and a closet full of flannel rather than corporate marketing executives with MBA's.

I fear that if this show is successful, that we are going to start seeing a lot of programs just like this and Netflix will convince us they are all popular and work to feature them constantly. It's all a money game in the end but one of the main things I have enjoyed about Netflix is that for the most part, it is the only place in my life that I am not subjected to constant advertising and it would be a damn shame if that were to change.

Anyhoo, hopefully I am worried for no reason.