Community

It happened the night before Barack Obama was sworn into office.

I was nestled on the couch watching one of my wife's favorite shows, ABC's reality dating series "The Bachelor." Hunky single pop Jason had just gone on a date with friendly single mom Stephanie, culiminating in a helicopter shot of a beach at sunset, set to a typical non-descript reality show soundtrack.

The next image: a helicopter shot of an anonymous woman windsailing over a body of water. That "Bachelor"-esque music picks up again. Then all of a sudden, the woman addresses the camera, and starts talking about Claritin.

Without even knowing it, I was watching an ad.

ABC and Claritin had teamed up to make a DVR-proof spot, at least for a few seconds. Typically on reality shows like this, there's a "coming-up" montage that plays before the commercial break. And if you're like me, that's the exact moment you pick up the Tivo controller and bdup bdup your way past the commercials to the next scene.

But in this example, there was no preview of scenes to come, and the sequence of images and sounds blended seamlessly from show to commerical. Before I even knew what happened, I was out of "The Bachelor" and in the clutches of Claritin.

As soon as I knew I was in a commercial, instinct kicked in, and I skipped the rest of the ad. But I was nevertheless intrigued by ABC and Claritin's new way to beat the DVR system, which arguably has had a negative impact on television advertising and network revenue. Chances are more people saw the first few seconds of that Claritin commerical than any other during the two-hour broadcast.

Which brings me to this point - Could this "deception" sabotage Claritin's efforts to make a positive impact? I can safely say that if I wasn't a writer for a magazine obsessed with marketing trends, I would be pretty annoyed by this ploy. But then again, Claritin did stand out compared to all the other commercials that aired during the broadcast. To tell you the truth, that's the only one I remember (partially) watching that night.

Thoughts, anyone? Do you think this sort of tactic helps or hurts a brand? And will other networks and advertisers follow its example?