Ed Shannon, Between the Corn Rows

Not long ago I purchased a stopwatch for one specific purpose, and this purpose has absolutely nothing to do with sports. That specific purpose is based on timing television commercials.

Before I go into detail on what I discovered in the timing of those commercial messages, there’s a detail I should explain first. I’m what could be described as a “drifter” when it comes to television viewing. Maybe other folks might say I’m a channel changer or surfer, but I like the drifter term a little better.

And what is a drifter? In my particular situation, it’s based on watching a television program. When the commercials come on the screen, I use the remote to change channels in a search to hopefully find something more interesting to watch. To be both honest and blunt, I’m not too fond of television commercials, except the ones featuring Flo the insurance salesperson. However, for this particular project, I endured watching those other commercials for the timing project.

Thanks to the new stopwatch, I’ve learned that television commercials come in various lengths. Some are so well organized and compact that they last only 15 seconds. Many are 30 seconds long each. One rather boring gem lasted for a full two minutes.

One cable channel program had a news segment covering various topics that lasted 10 minutes and 30 seconds that ended with, “We’ll be right back after these messages from our sponsors.” Please note the use of the plural word sponsors. what followed was the two minute commercial and three 30-second messages from those sponsors.

Another series of commercials I timed had seven commercial segments. There were two 30-second, four 15-second and one full-minute commercials. During this three-minute sequence there was a rather odd situation.

One of the 15-second messages from a tax firm was followed by a 15-second commercial featuring a hair-restoration product. Then the tax firm’s commercial was shown again after the hair-restoration one. Evidently, the sponsor wanted to make sure the viewers really got the message.

I’ve noticed during other 30-minute programs that the same commercials will be shown twice. It’s obvious the sponsors can afford the repetitions.

As I was timing the commercials, I noticed that there was obviously just a blink of time between the sponsored messages. Each second must really count for those television channels.

There’s one more really odd factor I’ve noticed with television commercials. Sometimes there will be just a two or three second segment of a fairly familiar commercial, like a short scene of Flo the insurance lady in her white clothing, popping up between other commercials. I’m not sure if someone in the control room has made a mistake or if there’s some sort of subtle message involved.

Now, let’s get back to this timing project. I decided to time a news broadcast on one of the local channels. This news report lasted 11 minutes and 35 seconds. It was followed by a segment consisting of eight commercials. Rather than time each one, I decided to time the whole series. This break between the regular news and sports lasted two minutes and 44 seconds. Thus, each commercial was about 20 seconds each in length.

Television viewers may have become accustomed to the commercial breaks coming several times during half-hour program. During this time, a short personal break can be taken. However, on the two public channels (2 and 11 on the Albert Lea cable system) there aren’t any breaks to disrupt a scheduled 30-minute program with commercial messages. On one of these telecasts I timed there was just a 51-second segment at the end that was based on the two firms that helped to make that particular program possible.

There’s potential for another column based on the use of my new stopwatch. Now I’ll just have to find the time to do this future project.

Ed Shannon’s column has been appearing in the Tribune every Friday since December 1984.