“Hey that ad’s in the way of-Ooooh! Macy’s is having a sale!”
This past fall (BEFORE all the writers decided to go on strike) my friends and I tuned into NBC Thursdays to watch the latest episode of The Office. It started out like any normal television program, then suddenly Denzel Washington’s face popped up in the bottom left hand corner of the screen to advertise some new dramatic action movie-whatever. I thought it might have just been a fluke, that perhaps someone fell asleep behind the switch at NBC accidentally prompting this corruption of time allotted for The Office and The Office alone. But no, Denzel appeared at least three other times over the span of the 22 minute episode. I didn’t know it at the time, but having my interest piqued I researched what I had just seen and learned that it was part of a new NBC advertising campaign aimed at increasing revenue. NBC actually started selling add space on the screen of their biggest programs. At least when advertisements pop up while I’m on the Internet I can just click them away, but during The Office? Law and Order? ER? I am trapped, forced to endure the annoying pop-ups or change the channel. But changing the channel is no fun when Steve Carell is managing an office, it just isn’t.
