Nathaniel Dixon
SSID: 005435207
ADV 123, Mon 6:00 – 8:45
Commercial Break Assignment
My hour of television started at 9:30 on the dot on Friday night; I tuned into a
half-over episode of Dateline NBC on my cable provider’s NBC HD affiliate. As I sat
down, the show was just coming back from a commercial break.
Dateline went back to commercial five minutes later, at 9:35, and returned at 9:39.
In those four minutes, 10 commercials were shown, so they averaged 24 seconds each.
The first commercial break featured two car commercials (separated by two other
commercials), and a varied assortment of other ads. Of note were a very brief spot for the
new season of Biggest Loser, a spot for American Express that was longer than any other
spots in the break (it ran in the middle of the break, just after the Biggest Loser spot), a
political campaign at, and a brief local news spot. The break ended with a brief NFL
football spot that also featured an in-spot mention for Papa John’s pizza.
The next commercial break came at 9:49, and it was the last break for Dateline.
Looking at the fact that the show was just coming back from a break when I tuned in at
9:30, that indicates there was probably a more clustered pair or set of breaks around that
time.
The 9:49 break was as long as the 9:35 break, but featured only eight ads. Again,
these ads were pretty varied, including a car spot, a Sprint cell phone spot, Friskies cat
food, and a couple other national product spots. The break ended at 9:53 with a spot for
the new NBC show Outlaw, premiering after this episode of Dateline.
Dateline ended at 10:00 on the dot, with a very brief credit run that featured no
ads.
10:01 marked the beginning of Outlaw. It’s Jimmy Smitt’s new one, and I’m just
going to mention right here, if anyone cares to know: it is awful. Very heavy-handed in
portraying its cast of truly generic characters. And it started with Smitt’s character pulling
a Tony Stark and successfully inviting an angry lobbyist back to his bedroom.
So. Bad.
Anyway. At 10:05, the show went to its first break with a bump stating the show
would return in one minute. Sure enough, it did. At 10:06, Outlaw returned from a oneminute commercial break that featured only spots for Verizon Wireless and Red Lobster,
in that order. Now that I look at it, that Red Lobster ad was the only restaurant spot I saw
all night, unless you count Subway. The Verizon ad that ran was also the only Verizon
spot of the night.
The next break came at 10:13. This break was three minutes long, and the only
break of that length all night, which makes me think that the one-minute break was so
much a “special” break as it was premium placement. This break, at 10:13, ran nine
spots, ending on another local news spot that I found interesting: it was pushing a story
about targeted, online advertising, and how to avoid it as a consumer.
Outlaw returned at 10:16, and broke again at 10:25, after putting me through
another nine minutes of Jimmy Smitts seeming like he didn’t care he was on TV, a
private investigator who tries way too hard to push her sexuality on the new intern, and a
rushed and awkward declaration of love by Smitt’s clerk. Such a bad a show.
The 10:25 spot again stayed largely national through its nine ads, with the
exception of another NBC football spot (again featuring the Papa John’s mention),
another political ad (not the same politician as the first one), and perhaps a Fry’s
Electronics ad. I say perhaps because I am not sure if they are a national or local
corporation.
The show returned at 10:29, and I just stopped watching at 10:30.
The night overall featured almost no local spots, save for local network spots and
the political ads. Only two companies were shown more than once in the hour: Kia ran
spots for two different cars, once in Dateline, and once in Outlaw, and Sprint ran ads for
two different phones separated the same way. Otherwise, the ads featured primarily
national products and car spots, with the exception of a single McDonald’s spot at the end
of Dateline, the placed Red Lobster spot, and a subway spot in the first “real” break of
Outlaw.