Movies for TV - Early Television Foundation

WHAT MAKES GOOD COMMERCIALS 319
with smooth, lifelike action and really appear to be alive. Stopmotion,
as already mentioned, is a series of photographs of an
object which undergoes a very slight change between each ex-
posure. In this way the objects appear
to move when the film
is projected.
There is no time limit laid down by the FCC for commercials.
Any excessive commercial airings, however, will bring unkind looks
at license renewal hearings. Although there is no legal time limit
for commercial plugs, individual stations have their own rules and
the National Association of Broadcasters has a code of ethics
which is supposed to be adhered to by all its members. However,
sometimes this is not done, and the commercial time may be extended
it is almost never shortened so that a program may be
almost all commercial. But quite frequently in this kind of pro~
duction the sponsor's name is brought in so skilfully that the
viewer is not aware of its persistence. For example, in the Buick
show the word "Buick" appears on the back curtains and is in
view on and off throughout the whole of the show. But no one
objects. In some of the daytime participation and market style
shows the sponsor's name is in view all the time.
Some of the best commercials are blended so skilfully with the
program that they are painless.
successfully,
This is wonderful if it can be done
but so often the result is a horrible mismatch where
the viewer is suddenly hurled from a comfortable story into a spiel
by one of the players whom he has been watching and enjoying.
More often than not the viewer will resent being fooled by the
action of one of the characters leading into a commercial and,
becoming resentful, will develop a block against that particular
sponsor. Everyone has probably heard the Jello commercials on
aural radio BT (before television). The author always felt that
they were well integrated and enjoyed the way they flowed into
the story. The well-known "pitch man" on the Milton Berle show
is an excellent example of an entertaining commercial.
As far as duration is concerned a point that is too often for-
gotten both by the public and the advertiser himself is the fact
that the sole reason for the thirty-minute program the only thing