Yesterday I had a DVR installed at my apartment. Now in an attempt to make up for the half day of work I missed I will blog about the experience.

While watching the Daily Show, a friend called me and said there was a meteor shower occurring and I should go outside. Excited to try out my new DVR I paused my live TV and went outside.

My outside adventure was a bust, and I returned to my living room disappointed. I pushed play and forgot that I could fast forward through the commercials for the first set, which I’m sure will happen again. The second set I remembered to fast forward through, but I still was exposed to clips of the advertisements.

I’m not saying it would be easy, but surely some crafty creative could devise a way to make a commercial that worked on fast forward, directly targeted at those DVR fanatics that zoom through the commercials.

Also, I do still watch live TV; usually it just serves as background noise. I do this because my mother does. This comes with a story too.

My mother is a clean freak, and not the regular type; instead of sitting through commercials she would begin cleaning and force me to do the same. I can still remember the joy I felt when she said, “Show’s back.” It’s sick, I know. What kind of mother would make her child clean during commercials?
So Nelson, tell me, how many other families do this? Sure the TV’s on, but that doesn’t mean anything! I know for at least three generations (yeah my grandmother does it as well) there are TVs that are only on for background noise. Seeing as I come from the most depressingly typical American family you will find I am convinced that marketers need to stop blaming DVR for their shortcomings and start being more creative.

Kyla