Cynthetiq

from NYtimes:

COMMERCIALS IN FLUX
What's Around the Corner for Ring Around the Collar?
By THOMAS HINE

THE first American television commercial was broadcast in New York on July 1, 1941, during a game at Ebbets Field between the Dodgers and the Phillies. The game was interrupted by an image of a Bulova watch face, superimposed on the screen and accompanied by a voice-over announcing, "America runs on Bulova time." Bulova paid $9 for the spot.

Television has come a long way since then. When the broadcast networks presented their coming fall seasons to advertisers in New York recently, they were looking for $9 billion worth of advance sales.

This year, however, as buyers grumble about paying more for shrinking, distracted audiences, a big piece of American commercial culture seems endangered. In the age of the remote control, of HBO and endless cable choices, and of TiVo, the recording device that lets viewers skip commercials, the marriage of mass entertainment to "a word from our sponsor," appears to be in trouble.

This may not be a cause for mourning. Any phenomenon that gives rise to Mr. Whipple, the hypocritical fondler of Charmin toilet paper, has much to answer for. Still, for generations who have grown up wanting their Maypo, or wanting their MTV, the crisis of the commercial is significant. We are people who deserve a break today, who want the real thing, who aspire to the Pepsi generation and just do it. We have learned to fear tired blood, mean old Mr. Tooth Decay, ring around the collar, static cling and dishpan hands.

Commercials aren't really interruptions to our entertainment but a major component of our common culture. As Madge the manicurist would say, we're soaking in it.

For half a century, commercials have dramatized the problems, solutions and promises of life. When the Beatles made their American debut on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1964, their first set was followed by an Anacin ad, whose pounding hammers and almost unbearable snippets of domesticity ("Mother, please, I'd rather do it myself!") were designed to give audiences the very headaches the product aimed to cure.

Commercials helped fuel the postwar boom in America, by convincing succeeding generations that their parents' luxuries were their necessities, while Morris the cat taught people that even pets are entitled to a higher standard of living. What's changed is not that the typical 15- or 30-second television ad is disappearing, but that it's something people can choose to see rather than something that can't be avoided.

In the 1920's, when broadcast radio was the hot new technology - like the Internet in 1996 - there were efforts, even within the advertising industry, to limit or ban commercials because, unlike print ads, they would threaten the sanctity of the home. But in 1922, when a Queens housing developer who advertised on a New York station attracted large numbers of new customers, broadcasters' moral qualms began to disappear.

Advertisers took complete ownership and control of much of radio's programming, and their commercials were often integrated into the programs' scripts. For example, on "Ma Perkins," a weekday program owned by Procter & Gamble that ran for 27 years, the laundry powder Oxydol was mentioned about 20 times in each 15-minute broadcast.

There was never any squeamishness about the commercial intrusiveness of television, which became publicly available after World War II, with hopes that it would help keep the country from falling back into the Depression. A 1946 Commerce Department study predicted, "Television as an advertising medium will create new desires and needs and will help industry move a far greater volume of goods than ever before."

Following the radio model, much early television programming was advertiser-controlled, and shows were filled with moments like the weekly dance of the Old Gold cigarette packs. Live commercials were among the most entertaining features of programs, because you would never know when the dog would fail to eat the Alpo.

By the mid-1950's, shows produced by a single sponsor dwindled, as networks began to assert control over programming and advertisers saw the benefits of spreading filmed commercials magazine-style through the weekly schedule.

Some makers of commercials saw themselves as avant-garde. The bustling city scenes of the 1960's "Ban takes the worry out of being close" campaign looked far more sophisticated than the programs it supported. And such ads became cultural reference points. "LSD is like Ban deodorant," a student identified as "a University of Michigan acidhead" told Time in 1966. "Ban takes the worry out of being close, LSD takes the worry out of being."

Even the dumbest commercials insinuated themselves deep into people's psyches. Gary Cross, a Penn State professor and author of "An All-Consuming Century," a history of commercialism, asked: "Do you remember this? 'Buy Dr. Ross Dog Food. Do your dog a favor. It's got more meat, and it's got more flavor. It's got more meat to make him feel the way he should. Dr. Ross Dog Food is doggone good. Woof!' "

While the decline of the power of spots might promise to free our minds for more important things, they will probably just adapt and thrive, like cockroaches. "I expect that the natural competitive drive will lead to a still more ad-saturated media," Professor Cross said.

Some television is again making products part of the program. The 1993 "Seinfeld" episode in which a Junior Mint falls into the body of a patient undergoing surgery stands as paragon of product placement. And reality series sell prominent spots for products, as do makeover shows like "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy."

Obviously, commercials aren't confined to television. Some commercials, like BMW's mini-movies and American Express's mini-"Seinfelds,'' are being made specifically for the Net.

"The strongest media that will vie for TV advertising's vacated spot probably haven't been commercialized yet," said Christopher Ireland, the chief executive of Cheskin, a marketing consulting firm, and an expert on marketing to young people. "They will probably incorporate the emerging capabilities of wireless connectivity, and peer review ratings."

She predicts that television commercials won't disappear, but that young people will use them differently. "For example, teens may simply like an ad's music and download it. Or they may like the way it's edited and copy the style for one of their own videos. In each case, they may pay little or no attention to the ad's message; they instinctively know how to focus on what they value and how to ignore the other parts of media. Their parents never learned that."

__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.