Fox does say that this experiment could be brought back for certain events, like one-off specials or film premieres. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a series premiere or finale get this treatment once in a while either.

*The report says rentention for these ad breaks rose to 92% from Fox’s 88% average. I’d love to see a study that goes beyond simply which channel was on the television for those breaks and showed the certain increase in viewers actually staying in the room and watching those commercials. I’m sure that had a much higher gain.

For kicks, follow the jump for a Gucci piece that David Lynch did a couple years back.

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.

The Spirit

There’s a new post-holidays commercial for The Spirit that’s been airing, and it’s laughably desperate. The film hasn’t been well received by critics or audiences, grabbing 9th place for its opening weekend and already having fallen out of the top 10, while Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 15% fresh score. The marketing campaign for this one has always revolved around pointing out the female stars and the sex appeal, but the new ad goes so far as to quote a critic as boldly declaring Eva Mendes “hot”. That is the entirety of the quote. Apparently that’s the contribution they feel is most likely to pull in an audience, which might be true, but remains nonetheless kinda pathetic. I caught that the quote was pulled from Bettie Magazine. Upon brief investigation, I saw that their review of The Spirit never once uses the word “hot”, nor does their feature interview with the cast. Hmm.

I can’t find a link for the ad, but if you’re watching television and a spot for The Spirit appears, have yourself a good laugh.

Damages

I just wanted to note that I was pleased to see Rose Byrne get her name on the new Damages poster. Even though she’s really the main character, it was Glenn Close who was the only one mentioned on the first season’s graphic publicity. There’s no question Close is the big name, but it always bothers me when that completely trumps the lesser known stars for marketing purposes. The second season’s poster rectifies this and touts both Close and Byrne.

Damages returns on January 7th and has already been picked up for a third season.

The Unborn

I wonder what the folks at Rogue Pictures want us to get out of this poster for The Unborn. I know where my eyes are drawn. Hint: it’s not to the creepy kid in the mirror.

And why does her head change angles when reflected?

The Chaser - UK quad poster

I’m not sure I can think of a film that’s been advertised as being the basis for a remake even before the remake was shot. It’s probably not a bad move though. There are definitely English speakers out there that don’t want to just sit around and consume Asian films as rejiggered by Hollywood. I was enjoying the hell out of Infernal Affairs long before The Departed came around. Likewise for the Japanese Dark Water.

Whether The Chaser is anywhere as good as the film the poster is implicitly comparing it to, I have no idea. Two of the three who weighed in on it over at Twitch say it’s nothing special. On the other hand, I’ve been wary of their consensuses after the months and months of fawning they gave Sha Po Lang, which I found forgettable. Korean audiences ate The Chaser up, and it hit some high profile festivals, so who knows. Just have to see it myself some day.

For now, I got a kick out of its UK distributor’s marketing tactic.

It should be interesting to see whether the financial aspects of this move can pan out beyond the boardrooms. For that matter, it’ll also be interesting to see how each show uses the additional allotted time, whether to pump episodes up with more plot or to perhaps allow for character moments that can often get the shaft. Either way, I’ll check out both pilots when they launch. Fringe has me thanks to having J.J. Abrams attached and its liberal use of X-Files influences. Meanwhile, Dollhouse will have me watching thanks to Joss Whedon and what he did with Firefly.

Fringe debuts Tuesday, August 26th while Dollhouse is set for Mondays beginning in January.

Wow. A campaign ad that doesn’t resort to distortions, negativity or attacks and actually addresses issues. Heck, it even made me smile. For a 60 second spot, it also does a fairly good job of ripping through the bullshit that is the proposed holiday on the federal gas tax, as supported by John McCain and Hillary Clinton.

Slate – Can Rosa Parks Sell Pickup Trucks?

New York Times – American Tragedies, to Sell Trucks

Bonus: How Chevy slightly modified the campaign to target Canada:
Macleans – This is Theiiiirrrrr Country

P.S.
I can’t help but also be reminded of a punchline David Cross delivered on his album It’s Not Funny. Cross describes seeing a commercial for electric scissors during an episode of the disgraceful The Simple Life and vows to think of that image when President George W. Bush tells people that the “terrorists hate our freedom.”

The punchline? “I hate our freedom! Me, little ol’ me! I’m an American. I fuckin’ hate it! That’s all we’ve done with it? We’re fucking assholes, man!”

Indeed. It doesn’t get much lower than exploiting a century of hardship, struggle and death in order to sell a few gas-guzzling pickup trucks. But I guess there’s nothing more American than exploitation, right? Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a strong urge to vomit.