An idea!
Having just seen this story on Techdirt about ads, I have decided to run with the idea, much like one would with a big pair of scissors. What about a new sitcom with any given episode devoted to a product? You could have an iPod episode, a Blackberry episode, a Microsoft episode, and so on! It would be grand! Grand, that is, but not easy. Not only would you still have to be able to craft an entertaining sitcom, but it would have to have the product be central to the story. This would be, in a word, really really hard. You can't exactly stop the story about Dad getting stuck on the roof to explain why the thumbpad on a Motorola phone is so awesome, or why your American Express can save the day. Also, if you don't get the balance between advertising and content right, the show would tank and it would tank hard. As in "frozen pop can dropped from the twelveth story onto concrete" hard. People barely watch infomercials - ones with attempts at plot and character could be so much worse. Still, the idea is worth a shot, or will be eventually once everyone has TiVo and nobody is forced to watch commercials at all. At worst, it'll happen anyways, but without the fanfare, as product placement gets more fashionable.  ¶ 4:40 p.m.