One Good thing about this Recession

As I sat upon my couch last night, quietly passing time with my wife, watching television, it occured to me that there is more than negative to this current recession. Oh sure, there is plenty of negative that can be spoke of, but I'm tired of the bad news, so, allow me to explain one good thing about this recession.

As one of my previous blogs noted, there are a LOT of bad television commercials out there. At times, the commercial will end and I stare, dumbfounded at the TV wondering - What the heck? I've never been much of a television watcher, not much of a 'boob tuber'. But I have noticed that commercials seemed to have been heading down a very dark road. No, the 'Dark Road' I refer to doesn't relate to 'Sex sells', as a catch phrase we all love to use, even though that is getting worse and worse.

No - What I'm referring to is the pure lack of quality of content. The commercials of last year were just plain bad all around. With very few 'shining stars', maybe that is why my TV watching hours plummeted last year.

Now, back to the point. So as I sat on my couch watching nothing particular, it hit me that commercials are getting good? Not just superbowl good, but good all around. The quality of the editing, the quality of the content (content is king), the quality all around. There were several commercials last night that literally had me LOLing.

Yes, finally, commercials are improving. The 'sore spots' are going away and more stand out as plain good commercials. For example, the Ocean Spray Cranberry commercials, already a bright spot, are getting even better. Last night the newest one I have seen shows the young boy with 'visual aids'. Funny, funny, funny.

Yes. Commercials are getting better and I believe it is directly related to the current recession. As companies have cut back funding for advertising, they have cut out all the lame riff-raff that built up in early 2008. If they are going to spend some very tight money on advertising, they are insisting on quality. This is very good for us watchers. Bad content gone - good content back. Further, commercials will continue to improve as the recession lessens and we begin to come around. Unfortunately, I'm sure this is a typical cycle the ad industry goes through so the days of really bad commercials will be back.

Maybe by then I'll just throw out our TV.