We Live in the Future: Mini Shows Between Commercials

Cartoon Brew brings news of Fox's attempt to stop the hemorrhaging of ad sales money thanks to DVRs.

Last week the Wall Street Journal ran an article about a new animated series on Fox called Oleg the Taxi Man. The cartoons, however, are only 8-seconds long and will run inbetween commercials to entice viewers not to flip the channel during commercial breaks. In the short clips, Oleg the taxi driver will offer up random thoughts and talk to 'spoof versions' of Tom Cruise and Donald Trump. Fox Broadcasting's president of sales Jon Nesvig, told the WSJ: "It's something that pops up that is unexpected and the viewer says, 'What the hell is that?' It may keep them around for a while longer."

So, readers, do you think a pointless racial stereotype will keep you from fast-forwarding through commercials? In our house, we refuse to watch live television anymore. We'll hit record and wait an hour instead because we find commercials so offensive. I can't help but feel a little guilty about that, and I do wonder why we hate commercials so much. I think perhaps we don't hate commercials. We just hate commercials for products we would never buy, which is about... 95% of the products on television networks.