By Heather Lopez

So a crazy thing happened the other day. I was watching TV and an ad came up for the Unites States Postal Service. That’s not the crazy thing, what was crazy was that when the ad came on, a simultaneous pop-up showed up at the bottom of the screen  saying, “Would you like to be sent a starter mailing kit?” with Yes, No, and Exit buttons you could select. I didn’t actually click on it, but one could assume that if they did, the kit would be mailed to the address where the cable service is provided as they would assume that this is your home.

Now TV has been somewhat interactive before, but this usually involves directing you to make a phone call or go online. What are the implications of advertisement that you could interact with right then and there? Is TV moving in the direction of the internet, which displays ads targeted to you based on browssing history? It could also go beyond advertisement, especially when you are voting for winners on shows like American Idol. Could this technology allow you to select who you are voting for, without the need to make calls and pay the service charge?

It’s an interesting advertising concept to ponder, though its availability will probably be far out of the reach of small business owners for quite some time.

On a side note, I kind of found the pop-up annoying, though this might just be an initial reaction to something I am not used to.

As always, comments are welcomed so tell me what your opinion is on interactive advertising on TV.