Magazine content is available exclusively for TIME subscribers.Television: The Boredom Factor
Television took a drubbing last week from one of its dearest friends: a TV adman. John P. Cunningham, head of Cunningham & Walsh, Inc., whose clients will funnel $20.8 million into TV this year, told 700 admen in Atlantic City that today's "pallid programing" is fast robbing even the best commercials of their power. Said he: "People will watch programs that bore them, but they tend to tune out their minds, which is bad for advertising."
Tedium seemed to be growing so fast in TV that Cunningham's outfit tried to measure "the Boredom Factor"...
To read the entire article, you must be a TIME subscriber. Already registered? Sign in below
Current print subscribers to register
Subscribe now to get TIME All Access
Email, Password or Region is incorrect
A required form parameter was missing.
The System is currently down. Please try again in a few minutes.
Email Address is invalid
Password is blank
Most Popular »
- E.T. Turns 30: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Our Favorite Extraterrestrial
- How Cash Keeps Poor People Poor
- 15-Year-Old Creates Test for Pancreatic Cancer
- Nevada Ghosts: Rare Photos From an A-Bomb Test
- 10 Dangerous Products You Might Have in Your Home
- Obama Stumbles? Why the President's Right to Talk About Bain
- Could a Fertility Gene Discovery Lead to New Male Contraception?
- Euro Crisis: Why A Greek Exit Could Be Much Worse Than Expected
- Fourth Flesh-Eating-Bacteria Case Confirmed in Georgia, Possible Fifth
- Star Wars Turns 35: How TIME Covered the Film Phenomenon
- Researchers Probe the Potential Health Benefits of Palm Oil
- A Visit with Turkey's Controversial Religious Movement
- Feeding the Planet Without Destroying It
- Bubble on the Potomac
- Falcon's Liftoff: How a Private Firm Could Change Space Exploration
- The Fatal Flight of the Superjet 100: Why Did It Slam Into a Mountain?
- Learning That Works
- The Man Who Remade Motherhood
- Bibi's Choice
- Seoul: 10 Things to Do
More News from Our Partners
Top Stories on TIME.com
Quotes of the Day »
RAY KELLY, New York City Police Commissioner, on the arrest of a New Jersey man in one of the nation's most baffling missing-children cases, the disappearance more than three decades ago of 6-year-old Etan Patz.
