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 on television
networks, and U.S. television networks have come to rely solely on advertising for their
economic 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.
