The silver lining of this recession has been found: sex and liquor ads are now all over prime time! Even Fashion Week people are grovelling before lube companies for sponsorships! It's nice.

It does suck, of course, that there are no more good ads because everyone is broke and TV networks are forced to sell prime ad time at discounts to the Snuggies infomercial people. But this has also caused them to totally eliminate all standards of any kind!

The Absolut Vodka commercials that aired in Los Angeles and 14 other cities during Sunday night's Grammy Awards marked the first time in years that liquor ads ran in prime time on network-owned stations.

Also crowding the airwaves during heavy viewing hours are infomercials once reserved for the middle of the night and ads touting extramarital affairs and the intimate uses of K-Y Jelly.

Allow us to be the first to toast this development with some drunken extramarital sex! Even the most exclusive precincts of society are not going to be insulated from this downturn in marketing dollars. This is one of the most heartening leads to any story we've read since the economy blew up:

THE perks at Fashion Week are taking a weird turn downmarket. High-powered fashion editors and retail merchants - who in seasons past have hauled off gift bags of Victoria's Secret lingerie, Calvin Klein perfume and Estée Lauder cosmetics - will be treated this year to McDonald's, Budweiser and Jell-O.

K-Y is there, too. We're all fucked. [LAT, NYP]