I don’t know if it’s just Cablevision but often, the very last ad during a commercial break lasts for a very short period of time — just a fraction of a second. I’ve always wondered why this was so.

The most likely reason is probably a poor implementation (I was going to write “a limitation of technology” but since everything is possible–it just comes at a cost which may not be worth it). I’m guessing that since the commercials come from a variety of streams — nationwide ads, local ads and Cablevision’s own “propaganda” — the system that splices them together isn’t quite synchronized with the overall system that determines when commercials should begin and end.

But the crazy in me sometimes thinks this is actually done on purpose. A kind of “subliminal advertising” option that costs less than a regular commercial (duh, it’s so much shorter!). This is especially tempting because if it were true, the fact that I’m writing about it means it actually works!

I also wonder whether the companies are charged for these microcommercials.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 29th, 2009 at 19:44 and is filed under The Daily Badness, technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.