Love TV, but hate the commercials? I do. Last night watching one of my favourite shows I was frustrated with the commercials, which these days are definitely louder both in decibels and the actors yelling at you.  Last night after about 5 occurrences of this guy yelling at me to buy BAM the super cleaner, I was fed-up.  Sure with digital TV I can scan other channels to see what else is on or go and get another beer, but once a commercial starts it’s hard to get the aggravation of it out of my head. Then it hit me.

What if a product had a chip or RFID tag in it that would register with your TV that you already had that the product in your house?  The TV would scan your home, find out you had the product already, and then knowing there was no real value in ‘selling’ you because you were already a buyer the commercial would just be screened out.

Advantages are many – first if you really hated a commercial you’d buy the product just to stop the commercial coming through.  A small price to pay I say.  If you love the product, you don’t need the commercial, so no one is wasting your time, which you appreciate.  And if you love the product AND love the commercial you could activate a built in shield on the product’s RFID so you can see the commercial.

Product advertisers could gather data to know how many households have their product, and maybe then tailor commercials to those that haven’t yet bought (okay this could include making the commercials even more terrible).  But when they reach the target penetration they could stop advertising for a while – giving all of us a break.  It could possibly stop those horrible tile commercials that come on 15 times an evening advertising their once-in-a-lifetime sale, which seem to happen every week.

Of course there are downsides.  TV stations would probably just substitute another commercial in place of the one that is screened out.  Out goes the BAM commercial, in comes those boozoos yelling us to get down to Lowes or Dimmeys or whatever.  Not a pleasant prospect, but at least you have some control.  Or just buy a $2 shirt and screen the buggers out.

Some people might be concerned about privacy – what is the TV really scanning for? Is it just picking up the RFIF signal or is also doing other nasty things?  Who cares I say – after all, with online systems, credit cards being tracked, forced choices by nanny state governments, and our own apathy, does it really matter?

This is a good idea, and I am sure that one day someone will think of it.  Wait a minute, I just did!  Anyone want to start a business with me?