Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Serial commercials

The audience can't wait for the next one
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Common commercials drive me nuts. It's why I don't listen to live radio or watch live TV

Have regular characters in well produced serials using the items being sold. Superheroes and MacGyver could use the products in many creative ways.

See Wikipedia for "continuing plot" Serial (radio and television). Examples: Dr. Who, soap operas, The Sopranos, The Loan Ranger, etc.

Two or more advertisers could participate to divide the cost and place their products in the ad (see "product placement" or "embedded marketing" on the net). This would be similar to the multi message signage out nowadays that reduces the cost for all those that advertise in the spot.

If well done, people would be anxious to see the next episode, rather than fast forwarding through the mind crushing, ever-repeating same ad.

Sunstone, May 03 2017

Coffee serials https://www.google....JWa2UF5CjjwS97KbwCw
[Sgt Teacup, May 03 2017]

Burma Shave http://burma-shave.org/jingles/
If you define "serial" as "one sign after another beside the road", then this Idea was baked a long time ago. [Vernon, May 03 2017]

The energizer bunny appeared before and after other, fake, commercials https://en.wikipedi...iki/Energizer_Bunny
[beanangel, May 06 2017]

[link]






       You're right, they are (marginally) better than your average commercial. However, they were Baked (with coffee!) in the '90s (you must be young, or maybe you didn't have access to a TV in the 90s?). See link.   

       Of course, now with product placement and whatnot, TV programs and movies are generally one giant product placement service (eg: Seinfeld's cereals).   

       Optional fun game: Name a movie with a computer that WASN'T a Mac. We can use this info to narrow down the window <snurk> where modern product placement 'started'.
Sgt Teacup, May 03 2017
  

       // Name a movie with a computer that WASN'T a Mac. //   

       "Billion Dollar Brain", "The Forbin Project", "2001", "Wargames" ...
8th of 7, May 03 2017
  

       Well [8th], your movies are from 1967, '70, '68 and '83...so, before the Mac was unveiled in 1984. Good work. I think we've now determined that there were no Macs in movies before Macs were introduced.   

       Next step: When DID we start seeing Macs in movies? (I'm going to guess 'movies made after 1984', but how long after? Did Jobs realize that the soft-sell of Macs appearing in movies would boost cachet, and sales? Did he bake it into his plan?)
Sgt Teacup, May 03 2017
  

       // When DID we start seeing Macs in movies? //   

       Ah, now you have asked the correct question, the one you should have asked ab initio. We call that woolly thinking (which is different from fuzzy logic).   

       Well, we've done all the work we're going to do on this one. We answered the question entirely and correctly. Spotting the first appearance of a Mac in a movie we leave as an exercise for the class.
8th of 7, May 03 2017
  

       //Spotting the first appearance of a Mac in a movie we leave as an exercise for the class.// I remember that the lead character in "The Third Man" wore one.
MaxwellBuchanan, May 03 2017
  

       Serial commercials about cereal killers. Oatmeal strikes again. The Corn Flakes killer of Battle Creek, MI
popbottle, May 03 2017
  

       National Treasure
notexactly, May 03 2017
  

       This is well baked. There was a reasonbly long-running series back in the late '80's / early '90's here (and there have been several others since).
neutrinos_shadow, May 04 2017
  

       // Name a movie with a computer that WASN'T a Mac. //   

       Good parlour game. Right: The Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy, Her, every Star Trek movie but ST IV, Hidden Figures, The Matrix, Jurassic Park, Alien: Resurrection, 2010.   

       But, we don't know the backstory of the ones set in the future. For all we know, all of those computers might be descended from Macs.
nineteenthly, May 05 2017
  

       Oh, and the Nestcafe couple ads.
nineteenthly, May 05 2017
  

       // all of those computers might be descended from Macs. //   

       No, because the humans using them are shown as intelligent and capable, rather than subfunctional slavish fashion victims.
8th of 7, May 05 2017
  

       Maybe Macs became unfashionable before they were developed into what we see. And apparently GUIs went out of fashion too.
nineteenthly, May 05 2017
  

       I saw an image once where people were wearing EEG electrodes while watching commercials. Imagine the greater orchestrations of the most lucrative waveforms with stacked commercials!   

       Also, The Energizer Bunny had some commercials where it would precede a fake commercial then interrupt the fake commercial.
beanangel, May 06 2017
  

       // I can't remember where I got my misinformation from either. //   

       In the 70's, as today, misinformation, prejudice and xenophobia were largely delivered to most people in the mail ... although of course if the mail didn't arrive that day, you could always go out and buy a copy of the sun or the express ...
8th of 7, May 07 2017
  

       I've heard that the product placement of Pottery Barn in 'Friends' is studied as a good example of how to do it during advertising training. The Boddingtons placement, by contrast, seemed very clumsy. In a way, this just is 'Friends'.
nineteenthly, May 08 2017
  

       // Oic, you are parodying your own anno as you write it. //   

       The humour does rather rely on the reader knowing that there are newspapers called the Daily Mail and the Daily Express, both notoriously right-wing, and a form of low-grade toilet paper called the sun, which has words printed on it.   

       // I do that a lot too. //   

       Oh good, maybe you should start pointing it out when you do it.
8th of 7, May 08 2017
  
      
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