Return of the Live Ad

Today the Wall Street Journal reported that NBC is trying to reintroduce live commercials that were standard during the 1950's. On Tuesday's "The Tonight Show", actors will perform a live skit promoting Garmin's auto GPS devices. This is the latest creative strategy to keep TiVo viewers tuned into the commercials. I have seen very few commercials since I got my DVR, but during some episodes of Scrubs, NBC has gotten me to stop zipping by sandwiching a mini-interview between commercials. TV ads will have to adapt to the changing environment in order to survive. It will be interesting to see if the live skit catches on.