TVSquad

Sure, we always talk about NBC, how they are usually fourth in the ratings and and they don't give shows a chance and they show Deal Or No Deal way too many times, but they are number one in one important area: selling ad time for this fall.

The network has already sold $1.9 billion (yes, that's with a B, as in Bionic Woman) of advance advertising sales for this fall's prime time schedule. And they did this even though they didn't do a regular upfront and didn't have pilots to show. That's $100 million more than they did last year.

Sex and the...carpool lane? That's what TBS is going for with their new microseries, Commuter Confidential, debuting Monday, June 2, during the sanitized Sex and the City at 11 p.m. EST.

But they're not fooling us. It's advertising, not a series, micro or otherwise. The 2-minute pods feature four women who, while trapped in a car together to and from work every day, yap about sex, death, bodily fluids, celebrities, politics, and their experiences with Match.com, all while applying Revlon makeup.

Daisy (Keri Lynn Pratt) is the aspiring artist, fresh out of college and ready to take on the world. Carmen (Idalis DeLeon, pictured) is an attorney who brings home the bacon while her loser hubby sits home and cracks open the brews. Former beauty queen Paula (Dorie Barton) is kvetching over the breakup of her marriage. And Sylvie (Dee Ryan) cares for her aging mom while running a Montessori school and wondering why the hell she ever gave up her investment banking job.

Last summer, I was reviewing an-hour long commercial for Visa for TV Squad. It was slightly more interesting than an infomercial, though. There was this guy named Johnny Smith who could see the future or the past when he touched people, and he always made sure to use his Visa card in sticky situations that would arise from this ability. Oh wait... What's that you say? That wasn't a commercial? That was an actual show? Then why did Johnny Smith make such a big deal of showing off his Visa card REPEATEDLY?

Oh, product placement. We love you so. It's not enough that we all got Tivos so we didn't have to watch the commercials that interrupt our favorite shows. Oh no. The sneaky advertisers don't need us to watch the commercials at all anymore. They just stick their products into the shows and let the actors use them. TV Squad. Simple. Inescapable, unless you plan to give up television entirely (and I don't.).

Of course, some products are necessary. Most people eat or drink something during the day, and it would be weird in today's world if television characters didn't have cell phones. TV Squad. But it's a little distracting when you are in the middle of watching a riveting episode of Moonlight, and you are distracted because Hey! There's a picture of Mick on Beth's iPhone! I wish I had an iPhone. Mick has an iPhone too! I wonder who programmed their pictures into the phones -- was it the actors, or some props person? Do you think the actors get to keep those iPhones? Oh wait, somebody just got killed.

So, in honor (not!) of the blatant use of product placement in our favorite shows (those darn Oceanic 815 survivors and their Dharma mayonnaise!), we bring to you The Brought to You by TV Squad Award. What are your nominees for the show who should receive this award, and what product are they pimping? Please nominate your favorites in the comments.

You know how television networks have been trying to convince advertisers that personal video recorders are good because they get people to watch more television, which means they're exposed to more ads? Yeah, it turns out watching more TV only helps advertisers if people don't skip past the ads.

Advertising Age reports that Information Resources Inc has announced the results of a 3-year study which seems to show that people who have a PVR in the house are less likely to buy packages goods, particularly brand name packaged goods.

A handful of brands did see increased sales, and the study suggests that brands that spend money on non-TV advertising will do better. Big surprise there. But the study raises a question for TV lovers, if people love TV, but prefer to skip commercials if they have the opportunity, how do we encourage networks to continue producing high quality programming? I'm not quite ready to say this study predicts the end of free broadcast television as we know it. But it certainly ain't helping.

[via Gizmo Lovers]

A roundup of TV people from in front of the camera and behind the scenes who have passed away.

• William F. Buckley, Jr.: He was conservative commentator and host of the long-running political show Firing Line, which started on WOR-TV and then went to public television, lasting 33 years. He was also the editor of National Review, the author of several books, and even ran for mayor of New York City once. Buckley was found dead in his home in Stamford, CT. He was 82.

Earlier this week we told you about the Big Brother controversy, when a contestant, Adam, referred to autistic individuals as "retards," and how John Gilmore of advocacy group Autism United, had demanded an apology from the network. Now comes word that his group's influence has resulted in a major advertiser, Lowe's, pulling its commercials from Big Brother.

Lowe's Karen Cobb explained to Adweek, "Once it was brought to our attention, we decided not to advertise [on Big Brother] further." During the February 13 episode, a Lowe's commercial did air, but according to Ms. Cobb, Lowe's does not routinely advertise on this reality show and will not in the future.

Is it really a big surprise that television advertising isn't as effective as it used to be? As TV watchers -- okay, we're uber-watchers -- we know that with DVRs and TiVos we're zooming through ads, or we're channel surfing in between segments of our favorite shows, or renting/buying content in formats that allow us to avoid commercials altogether. Now, according to the Association of National Advertisers and Forrester Research's TV & Technology Survey, we learn that six out of 10 marketers believe that TV advertising has become less effective in the past two years. And it's getting worse.

Cracked.com has a put together a list of five commercials that companies would really like you to forget. The commercials, mostly from the 1960s, speak to a much different time in American history. They show just how unevolved mainstream America's views of race and gender were.

My two favorites (although I'm unsure whether "favorite" is the appropriate word) were the Folgers commercial where all the husband wants for his birthday is for his wife to make a decent cup of coffee and the Jell-O commercial. This ad features a Chinese baby (pictured at the right) who can't eat the "Western delicacy" with his chopsticks.

Cracked.com has videos for all the commercials so go and have a look.

This just in from the department of obvious research: Viewers are more engaged with ads in online videos than traditional television commercials. A recent study by Simmons indicates that viewers are 47% more engaged in commercials that run when watching TV shows online than when you're sitting in front of a TV.

We won't get into what exactly constitutes "engagement," but in a nutshell this is a marketing study that suggests advertisers will get some bang for their buck if they spend money to support online video.

I can think of plenty of reasons why people would be more receptive to online video ads. While most of us have learned to ignore the banner ads and pop ups that we see on web sites, there's no way to ignore a 30 second interruption when you're watching House. And unlike traditional TV, most of the services that let you watch TV shows online, whether they be network web pages, Hulu, Joost, or some other service, only include a handful of short commercials in each episode.

So while you might get up and go to the bathroom or kitchen during a 3 minute TV break, you don't have time to walk around the house when a commercial comes on during your online video viewing session. Watching online videos also isn't quite as passive an experience as TV for most viewers. You can't just hit the power button and then start hitting the channel flip buttons mindlessly. You still need to actively seek out the programs you want to watch, which means there's a better chance you're paying attention in the first place.

Still, I suppose it's nice to have a research company confirm something that should be obvious. Hopefully it will help convince networks to put more of their content libraries online.

[via TechCrunch]

It's no secret TiVo has been selling user data to advertisers for a while now. The concept is pretty simple: if you're upset people are using TiVo to skip some commercials, why don't you take advantage of this rich anonymous user data we're collecting about how people watch TV to make more effective commercials?

But now TiVo is removing the "anonymous" from that sentence. Well, sort of. TiVo reports that 20,000 volunteers have opted into a new Power Watch program that lets advertiser have access to their age, income, marital status, ethnicity, and other demographic data, but not their names. TiVo users who opt-in get entered into a content to win a free TiVo. Of course, they already need to have a TiVo in order to qualify, but who couldn't use a second box in the bedroom?

[via Gizmodo]

According to an article in Variety, Google is paying Nielsen for demographic data regarding certain TV shows. Google dominates the Internet ad market to the point where billions of small sites use Google ads and it looks like they're trying to break into the TV business.

It's a logical business move on Google's part if they want to expand their business into more mainstream media. There has been a slow merger of television and Internet entertainment over the years (the most recent example being the episode download sites of every major network) and Google knows this and probably wants a piece of the action.

Perhaps Google will even get its own television show in the future. The Google Channel. What sort of television shows would be on it? I bet it'll have fantastic commercials, targeted specifically to the individual viewer. Or maybe not.

(S01E12) "Fire him if you want. But I'd keep an eye on him. You never know how loyalty is born." Cooper, to Don, about Pete.

I don't think I'm giving anything away when I tell you that at the end of this episode, Kennedy wins. But it's not really about that anyway, despite the title. The first half of the ep is all about the election and the different pairings we see at the Sterling Cooper all night party - Harry and Hildy, Ken and a secretary, even Sal and Joan, though not in the way you might think - but the second half finally explains what the deep, dark secret is in the past of Don Draper.

And the secret is...

I'm so happy to see Mad Men getting the recognition it deserves. It doesn't get Grey's Anatomy numbers (it's on cable) and it hasn't spawned devoted web sites like Lost, but it's critically-acclaimed, loved by those in the know, and has been given a second season by American Movie Classics. And AMC has some treats in store for fans when the season finale airs on October 18.

(S01E11) "I saw this one where the husband gets this girl pregnant, so he kills her ... you don't want to be that woman." - Rachel's sister, about Rachel's affair with Don.

Several episodes ago, after the episode where Don/Dick was reunited with his younger step-brother Adam, we all wondered if Adam would reappear. Had we seen the last of him? Would he cause more trouble for Don? Would he show up in the season-ending cliffhanger? Those questions were answered in the very first minute of tonight's episode, as Adam gives the hotel clerk a package to mail to Don and then promptly goes to his room and hangs himself.

I was not expecting that.

I've been trying to get friends of mine to watch Mad Men, but not a lot of them take me up on it. Their responses run from "Oh, I don't need yet another TV show to watch" to "Huh? Mad Men? What's that?" It probably doesn't help that it's on American Movie Classics, a niche network that a lot of people don't even watch (if they even have it on their cable system), but I want to advise anyone who loves good period drama - and by period I don't mean the 1700s, with elaborate costumes, I'm talking 1960 New York City - or anyone who loves good drama, period, to watch this show. Overall, it's the most consistently well written and well-acted (and well cast) show on television right now, and the production design is intoxicating.

After the jump is a preview of tonight's episode, "Indian Summer." It summarizes many of the plots, including Rachel thinking of having an affair with Don, Pete (Vincent Kartheiser from Angel) being a jerk, Peggy's place in the office, and the Sterling Cooper team brainstorming an idea.

(UPDATE: The video is now the correct episode.)