My uncle, who was an engineer at a cable company, told me something that changes how I watch old commercials now

So we're having dinner on Sunday and he mentions that the 2 minute local ad breaks were sometimes intentionally placed to mess with you. He said the system used to run filler loops that repeated the same 3 ads over and over, and the station managers would leave them in on purpose to test which spots got the most channel flips. I always thought those repeated car dealership ads were just lazy scheduling... but now I can't watch any 90s local break without thinking about that. Has anyone else heard stories like this from people in the industry? Feels weird knowing there was a strategy behind all that repetition.

1 comments

1 Comment

karen41022d ago

Is your uncle messing with you a little? Station managers wanting to know when people flip channels is pretty basic stuff, but saying they left bad ads in on purpose sounds like a story they tell to feel important. Probably just a lazy programmer who didn't care enough to change the loop.