hypnolibertarian

My pet peeve right now is those commercial inserts that they flash on the screen.  You know the ones: you are watching an interesting program and suddenly Hugh Laurie as House pops up in the lower left hand corner, and you wonder what the heck he has to do with Steven Segal kicking the snot out of some villain.

It may have little to do with the storyline, but it has everything to do with making money for the TV stations.  Recall our conversation about how those who write commercials try to make them resemble TV shows, and otherwise to soften the transition from the TV show itself to the commercial.  Well, these inserts don’t have to soften the transition; there is no transition.  They may appear at any time during the program, obscuring what is happening below them and sliding the idea of watching their program into your subconscious.  When you reach the point of ignoring them, and just watching the show, you are doing just what they want; you are allowing these inserts to slide past your conscious mind into your unconscious mind.

So far, the TV stations have kept this powerful spot to themselves.  However, there is talk of allowing commercial companies to have some of that time; and not only that, but to coordinate the inserts with product placement in the show.  For example, the hero detective takes a drink of Coke as a normal product placement while a commercial for Coke plays underneath.  The rule of thumb in the industry is that product placement alone is not enough; it must be followed up with normal commercials.  Now that follow-up can happen right at the same time as the product placement.

Watch for those inserts.  Do they affect your viewing habits?  Do they make you more aware of new shows coming up?