All ads, all the time, with "station breaks" for ads?

[Chris Blount]

Strange But (We Guess) True

Strange but, according to the New York Times, true. Seems the Brits (who else?) will soon have access a new, 24-hour satellite network known as the Advert Channel. It's got its own blow- dried hosts, shows like "Adverts for You" and "Ad Chat" and it will devote nine minutes per hour to ads ... well, current ads. The rest appears to be a stew of audience interaction (Vote for your favorite ad!), advertising background (How did they do that?), classic ads (Anybody remember "I'd like to teach the world to sing?") and the ever-popular viewer-produced home-movie type advertisments.

Fortunately, the British Isles are reputed to feature far better commercials than standard U.S. fare. Which leads us to suggest that maybe some of the advertising Chicken Littles in this country try crossing the Big Pond to see what it is the Brits have that we don't.

At any rate, the channel won't debut full time until Monday, Sept. 6th but in the meantime you can check out The Advert Channel (billed as "For people who love Adverts") at http://www.theadvertchannel.tv

http://www.skyreport.com (Used with permission)

[mainedish]

I started collecting commercials a while ago. Over 150 dvds later and still going strong. Commercials really are like a time machine when you watch them. Some of the ones I am really glad I have are,, Red Sox Commercials from the 1970's ,(Ted Williams selling bread in Rockport Maine) The New England Aquarium Commercial that I was in(Can't believe I found it,, Thanks to a friend at WSBK TV 38 IN BOSTON.) Old Motorcycle commercials from the 1970's, Old Radio Shack Christmas Commercials,, Toy Commercials. Christmas Commercials are the most fun to watch. I have a 1975 Radio Shack Christmas Commercial that is really neat to watch. Ebay has a few for sale but I have had better luck getting them from the source.
The ones I find the most interesting are commercials made on a low budget like here in Maine.

[jpurkey]

I like the old ads too, especially commercials from the 50's and 60's.

Commercials where the stars from show, such as Lucy and Desi, are doing the pitch are the most interesting to me. I also like ads for produts which were state of the art at the time, such as the Univac(sp?) computer, but today seem so primitive.

.

[Karl Foster]

How do you know when the programming starts and the advertising starts?

[mainedish]

The website they have is not very good.

[Steve Mehs]

Old Radio Shack Christmas Commercials

I still have the tape I recorded Pulp Fiction off of WPIX when I had cable from Chistmas time of '97 and have a few Radio Shack commercials pushing Primestar. I hate commercials, but I enjoy watching commercials from the past. They really are a time machine as you put it.

[Nick]

"All ads, all the time, with "station breaks" for ads?"

Don't we have that already? 24/7 shopping channels, 'round the clock infommercials, regular channels with 2 minutes of program and 20 minutes of "adverts", tv programs and movies with ubiquitous product placements. It's all advertising, all the time.

Old commercials is one thing, all commercials, quite another. Let's not have another British "invasion".

I'll pass. :rolleyes:

[TNGTony]

I remember that Mexico City has a radio station that had 58 seconds of commercials a minute. The other two seconds was reserved for the time. When we drove to Mexico City, we listened to this channel for a good 5 minutes before we realized what it was. It was the "time" radio station! I'm pretty surprised some one hasn't imported that idea.

See ya
Tony