*** Copyright c 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1995 by Nicholas Johnson. Conditions: This material is copyright by Nicholas Johnson. However, permission is hereby granted by him to download, copy and distribute the text to others if (1) the text is not altered, and (2) there is no charge to the recipient, and (3) this copyright notice and conditions are attached. It is a copyright violation to distribute this material altered, or without the copyright notice and conditions attached, or to use the material in any way for which remuneration is received without the prior permission of Nicholas Johnson. Contact: 1035393@mcimail.com; Box 1876 Iowa City IA 52244; 319-337-5555. Anyone using this material should also be aware that, as a syndicated column, copyright may also have been retained by the syndication services. During the 1982-86 period of publication syndicators included: The Iowa City Press-Citizen, Gannett Corporation, Register and Tribune Syndicate, Cowles Syndicate, and the King Features Syndicate. *** Zapping Commercials Confess. Have you ever turned away from the TV during a commercial break? Started talking? Left the room? What may have seemed to you like a perfectly innocent act is known in the advertising industry as "zapping," and is there viewed as the moral equivalent of shoplifting. "Hey, what's the big deal?" I hear you ask. What you may have forgotten is that you are a economic commodity of considerable value to advertisers and broadcasters. Forget the "pay cable" channels and other exotic electronics. Most of the TV we watch is still paid for by corporations trying to sell us products during commercial breaks. Whether or not there's any such thing as a "free lunch," there clearly is no such thing as "free TV." Together we pay billions of dollars in excess product costs for that "free TV" every time we buy anything from an automobile to a tube of toothpaste -- whether we saw the TV show or not. But we don't pay at the moment we turn on the TV. The advertiser does. And what the advertiser is paying for is us. That's right. We are the product. The TV show is incidental. It's the flypaper, the moths' bright light, the carnival barker. It only serves to attract a crowd. Once we're gathered around the glowing tubes we can then be sold, at a "cost per thousand," to advertisers -- like cattle being sold at a cost per hundredweight. And just as the cattle get none of the money, neither do we. The money goes to the broadcaster. How does the advertiser know how many of us are watching? It doesn't. "Ratings" are just a pollster's sample. And ratings only tell if the set is on. Knocking on doors 10 years ago, campaigning for Congress, two things struck me. One was how many living room TV sets were turned on. The other was how few of them were being watched. The people were in yards, garages, kitchens. If this has been going on for years, why the current furor? More money's at stake. A minute spot that once cost $30,000 may now be $500,000. But the other reason's consumer electronics. Videocassette recorders enable you to do more than "time shift" (tape it now, watch it later), watch rented movies, and make home video. The upscale models let you play back at fast and slow motion, "freeze frame," and otherwise manipulate programs. I watch almost no TV that hasn't been videotaped, then play it back at 10 times normal speed. It takes less time. Most viewers watch taped programs at normal speed. But 64% fast forward the commercials (or edit them out when taping). And the numbers are worrying advertisers. Add channel switching during commercials (made easier with cable boxes or remote TV control), and leaving the room (now called "physical zapping"), and experts predict advertisers may have lost 50% of their TV audience by 1990. It's nice to know that even though a lot of electronics goes to instruments of war and invasions of privacy it's also produced some defensive weapons for you and me. [July 26, 1984; RTS October 1, 1984; ICPC October 1, 1984] END OF FILE