Digital Home Thoughts: Fox Tries to Thwart DVR Fast-Forwarding

"Fox is running a 30-second television spot with just one static image in an effort to reach viewers who fast forward through ads using digital video recorders like TiVos. U.K. advertisements for Fox's new drama, "Brotherhood," which premieres in Britain in October, simply shows an image of Providence, R.I., where the show is set, and the program's logo. Viewers fast-forwarding through the ad would see the image for a few seconds; those watching it normally would hear dialogue from the show in the background. Jon Hollett, a Fox International spokesman, said the company was experimenting with ways to get its messages to DVR users who routinely breeze through ads without antagonizing real-time viewers by broadcasting a flat, silent image for thirty seconds."

Interesting idea though I am not so sure it will be successful, and here is why. I can at least speak for Comcast (the calbe provider I use now) and Time Warner (what I used to use), i.e. they both allow you to fast-forward at a number of different speeds. When an ad segment comes on, I immediately hit the FF button enough times so that it fast-forwards at maximum speed. At this time I am either looking at the progress bar to see the status of my program viewing or I am pattern matching the images to see when the program actually begins. I am pretty sure I am not registering the actual ad images that are flying by. What are your thoughts on this?