ABSTRACT
Most television commercials are not bashful about their economic function. They exist
to sell products and services. And they do so quite effectively. Huge corporations would
not be spending one fourth of their advertising dollars-roughly $50 billion per year-on
U.S. television if their market research did not show that viewers are positively affected
by this avalanche of ads.1 Corporations have come to depend heavily upon television
networks and U.S. television networks have come to rely solely upon advertising for their eco-
nomic sustenance-unlike many other countries where television is government or subscription
supported. Just as with radio before it, U.S. television’s economic structure is undergirded by
commercials.
