Are television commercials so good that they make the shows they interrupt more enjoyable? Or are commercials so bad that they make everything else seem exciting in contrast? Or do viewers have such short attention spans that without commercials they lose focus on the shows entirely?
Time talks about a recent study that found viewers enjoyed televised programming more when there were regular commercial breaks as opposed to when they’re absent.
Along these lines, the authors of the new study, titled “Enhancing Television-Viewing Experience Through Commercial Interruptions,” proposed that the longer viewers continuously consume a television program, the less intensely they enjoy the experience. Sure, I’m euphoric that The Office is on now, but five minutes into the show, that euphoria has certainly worn off. So what can possibly help me get the love back? An annoying set of commercials, for sure. Yes, I hate the fact that I’m seeing that Toyota ad for the 800th time. And the Geico cavemen just aren’t that funny anymore. Please make it stop. Wait, thank heavens: The Office is back on! Yes, I’m ecstatic once again.
To test their hypothesis, the researchers — Leif Nelson, a marketing professor at the Rady School of Management at the University of California, San Diego; Tom Meyvis, a marketing professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business; and Jeff Galak, an NYU doctoral student — asked subjects to watch an episode of the Emmy-winning sitcom Taxi. The episode, “Louie’s Mother,” originally aired in 1981 (trivia buffs: Julia DeVito, the real-life mother of Danny DeVito, who starred as cab dispatcher Louie De Palma on the show, played the episode’s title role). The researchers chose Taxi because the subjects, 87 undergraduates from NYU, had no pre-existing opinion of the show.
Half the subjects watched Taxi exactly as it aired in syndication back in 2005. The commercials included a mix of cheesy local New York City advertisements for places like the Jewelry Factory and the law office of Michael Brownstein, as well as network promos for shows like Geraldo, The Simpsons, and Inside Edition. The other half watched Taxi without any commercials. Those who watched the show with interruptions reported statistically significant higher levels of enjoyment.
I’d be interested to know what would happen if the test groups actually liked the shows before the experiments. Like say, if fans of The Office were split up and watched the show with and without commercials. Would the findings be the same?
And how much of this has to do with act break cliffhangers that assume viewers will be forced to wait a couple minutes to see resolved? Actually partaking in that break would probably enhance the enjoyment of the show’s return, provided they were interested in where the show left off.
I don’t think I’ll ever prefer watching something with commercials over being commercial free. Seems downright silly, but what do I know, I hate most of the super popular television shows in the first place.
