When digital video recorders first started appearing in the late 1990's, the advertisers and the television companies that depend on the sale of advertising time were worried. The reality stepped out into the public gaze in the form of the TiVo and ReplayTV which both allowed users to skip recording the ads. This would potentially eliminate one whole sector of the market for ads. The tech-savvy younger people with these new boxes would become unreachable if they chose to view offline. The responses were variously dramatic. Some countries like Singapore actually banned the sale of these boxes. In the US, the major networks sued ReplayTV's manufacturer. It entered bankruptcy two years later. TiVo went with the flow and disabled the facility and made it difficult to share recorded content over the internet. By playing ball with the content providers and advertising industry, the manufacturers have managed to stay in business. Their users have, of course, all labored hard to produce work-rounds and can either record without the ads, or fast forward through the ads. People who don't want to watch ads can't be forced into it.
What was of limited effect ten years ago has become more widespread. Technology has a way of finding its way into households, particularly where there are young people with reasonable levels of disposable income. This emphasizes the problem because this is the group the advertisers would most like to target. We are therefore watching a slight drift in advertising strategy as time slots are now sold for a different age profile of watchers. At times when the young and affluent might be thought the likely audience, the ads are actually being aimed at older watchers. That's why we're seeing more ads for denture cream and drugs for erectile dysfunction. There are also more aggressive examples of product placement. If the target demographic insists on skipping the ads, put the ads inside the programs they watch. Alternatively, you move the ads on to the internet. Rates for online slots have been rising in line with demand.
All of which means you can expect to see far more ads for erectile dysfunction drugs on the TV. This is already increasingly controversial with several family groups arguing that no ads for any "adult" products should be shown on the children's channels or before 10 p.m. It seems a lot of parents have been complaining of the difficulty in explaining what these drugs are supposed to do. Children have always had big ears and the ability to ask the questions parents least want to answer. So far, the First Amendment arguments have been prevailing. Since it's perfectly legal to advertise Levitra and the other drugs, there's no limitation on when they can be shown. In fact, the only legal limits apply to all drugs. The FDA's regulations require manufacturers to list all the major side effects. That's why the first ten seconds of any ad tell you how wonderful the drug is, and the next thirty seconds lists all the things that can go wrong if you take it. Except, for most purposes, everything goes right with Levitra so there's no problem in advertising that.