History of commercial ads
It all started in the 1980s. Ronald Regan was president and one of the many controversial things he did in that office was to liberalize the television industry. Why did he do it? Well, as a conservative Republican, he lived and breathed from the "free market base," which stated that the government did not belong to the business, and businesses must live and die because of the success or failure of their practices and market forces.
At the same time, cable TV was just beginning to expand into the US TV market, opening up a huge streaming place that didn't exist beforehand. Anyone with any experience in the broadcasting industry was starting their channel and cable channels quickly became popular. The most successful channels at the time were religious channels that were used for fundraising purposes. There were hundreds of them, from young local priests and priests from questionable backgrounds to nationally broadcast spiritual and religious performances, using well-known religious figures.
At this point, two things happened. For example, many fledgling young channels and networks that relied on ad revenue to keep themselves afloat attracted fewer ratings than stars and began to collapse. At the same time, religious channels began to realize that fundraising efforts were failing miserably late in the evening and early morning hours.
Born a cheap streaming space! Adventurous entrepreneurs, like the Eagles more than the saviors, began chewing on dying bodies in the young cable industry, buying blocks of cheap airtime, late at night, off-peak, and working for 30 minutes or 60 minutes, producing inexpensive commercials that were reconfigured as entertainment programs.
Soon there were media stars. Celebrities, as well as a group of unknown people, found fame and wealth in the newly created business information industry. There was Jane Fonda who picked up lightning in a bottle with her workout tapes at the same time to boost the video business alongside the business. There was Ron Bobbell, who marketed every tool and device people didn't even know they needed and switched from print to electronic communication so successfully that he still did so today. And there was Kenny Kingston who made the psychological hotline one of the biggest companies in the world without having anything to sell! Only in America and only in advertising can such overwhelming success happen so quickly.
Soon everyone with an idea was trying to come up with the next big thing. As always with any new industry, immediately after the initial success, comes a huge wave of imitators and innovators trying to take advantage of it. And as always - most fail. There was such great admiration for wishers flocking to the business that production rates skyrocketed and airtime became more expensive and less available. Almost overnight, the social information industry went from nothing to today's enviable billions of dollars a year. That's just in America. Successful ads, such as Hollywood movies, are translated into foreign languages and run around the world, especially when driven by celebrities.
The newly created media industry was an introduction to the Home Shopping Network and QVC which is essentially a small 24-hour, product-driven, price-driven, celebrity-driven commercial. And now we have a social information channel - 24 hours a day of advertising. Gone are the days of loud hikers, snake oil sellers screaming at the camera, selling the latest "slides! It's patched! "Home improvement device. Today, commercials are great and expensive and if they work they are very profitable.