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Tivo Challenged

The Tivo epidemic that has changed our viewing habits is pretty much a nuisance to advertising companies, who work very hard to get that one TV spot out, just to be ignored by viewers who indifferently push a small fast forward button. The DVR phenomenon is even the forefront of the 2006 midterm elections, with reports stating that political campaign ads are suffering from Tivo-like technology.

Companies have been forced to think of creative ways to get their messages across. They have placed them inside video games and at the movies, and they have even enhanced the commercials to be visually intriguing, just to get viewers to backtrack and watch what they just fast forwarded. Fox has come up with the latest idea, and it certainly has caught the attention of many.

Fox is running a 30-second television spot with just one static image in an effort to reach viewers who fast forward through ads and it is implementing this idea in U.K. advertisements for Fox`s new drama, "Brotherhood," which premieres in Britain in October. Viewers fast-forwarding through the ad would see an image of Providence, R.I., where the show is set, and the program`s logo, those watching it normally would hear dialogue from the show in the background.