ABC tweaks its advertising technique

Earlier today, Tom blogged about how product placement is helping companies keep their brand names in the public eye despite the continued encroachment of digital recording devices that allow a program's viewers to easily zip through the commercial breaks. In another strategy to keep couch potatoes on the couch during the advertising breaks, ABC -- a unit of Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) -- is considering a change in the way it breaks for commercials.

One suggestion is to seamlessly segue the program into the commercial spot, keeping the audience engaged "so they don't feel they've gone into the commercial," the network's president of sales and marketing noted. The CW Network, which is owned by CBS (NYSE:CBS) and Time Warner (NYSE:TWX), is also contemplating a change in its advertising module. The network is selling commercials that resemble programs, with the products incorporated in the "plots" of the ads. Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) has already signed up for one of these commercial blocks, referred to as "content wraps."

From my childhood, I remember a delightfully engaging series of Taster's Choice commercials starring Anthony Stewart Head (who would later soar to fame as Rupert Giles on TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer). I'm all for bringing back serialized creativity to help the consumer cause -- I just can't guarantee it will keep my husband away from the fast-forward button.

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.