by Bo Paul

Created on: June 20, 2008

Since the rise of television as a form of mass entertainment in the 1950s the medium has undergone a number of changes. From the way it is broadcast (black and white to color programs, for example) to the number of available channels (the three major networks if that to the hundreds of channels on cable or satellite TV), what we consider the norm for television broadcasting and viewing is a far cry from where it origins. However, not all of the change has been for the better. Take for example commercials and advertising which has evolved from a single sponsor show with commercials featuring the characters from the show the company was sponsoring in many cases to various advertisers vying for ad time. The latest incarnation doesn't even wait for the commercial break the pop up ad during the show.

Anyone who has watched television in the last few years has seen it. Pretty much exclusively the domain of the network or channel broadcasting the show, it appears at some point during a program to mention the shows ahead that evening or in some rare cases programs appearing later on in the week. On occasion you see some sort of product tie in or promotion connected to the show (a contest, for example), but mostly it's the domain of the network. It also can be one of the most annoying things about television these days.

Why do I find it annoying? For one thing, it hinders the intended feel of the broadcast. It's one thing for advertisers to place their ads during the commercials; in fact space is allotted for that purpose. However, a pop up ad or a crawl at the bottom of the screen interrupts the visual feel those who produce the program meant to have. It also is problematic in that it psychically interrupts the flow a viewer has with the program by shattering the suspension of disbelief and reminding the viewer they're watching a TV program. In the case of reruns of older shows the pop up ad has on occasion blocked out a character sitting down in the part of the screen where it appears, thus altering how the director planned the show's blocking of movement and placement and interfering with how the show was intended to be watched.

Then there's the advertising factor within the pop up ad or the crawl that pops up on some programs. Most people know that advertising and commercials are what pays for much of what is on television. In the early days of the medium, commercials for a program often had the show's characters using the product (one such example from the early 1960s

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