The Tivo users among us have decided that they no longer need to watch television commercials, but rest assured that their unpatriotic fast-forwarding will not go unpunished. The entire advertising industry in now engaged in nothing except figuring out how to make TV viewers watch ads whether they want to or not. The most popular method is to try to turn commercials into "shows" themselves, or mix up advertising and actual content so much that you have to watch both. But CBS is raising the question: what if the advertising and the content are equally annoying?

To entice Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch consumer-product giant, to spend on its network, CBS created a campaign featuring the host of its entertainment-news show "The Insider." In so-called interstitials, or mini segments, during breaks in the comedy shows, the host dishes about the CBS comedies while preparing a new Bertolli product.

So if you can stand to miss the host of The Insider "dishing" about CBS comedies while preparing Italian food, Tivo away! Wanna see an example? Sure you do: Click to view [via WSJ]