Blurring the line between television shows and ads

I was watching a show the other night, though at the moment the exact show is escaping me. No surprise there. What I DO remember, though, is the way in which they went into one commercial break, which was very very slyly. In fact, I didn't even start fast forwarding my DVR because I thought it was still the show. It was, in fact, not the show, and instead a Lexus car commercial.

There had been a big explosion of some sort (Oh! My memory has been jogged and I now remember I was watching Heroes) with flames and fire and debris, and the next frame that shows up is an SUV that is heavily damaged with debris surrounding it. There are sirens, flashing lights, the whole nine. Then all of a sudden the scene starts to change (as that Lexus campaign does) and--boop boop boop--a fast forwardin' I go. I felt a bit silly, but what can I say - it was smart of them. Though if I hadn't already known it was a Lexus commercial b/c I know the style of their ads, not sure a normal consumer would have stuck around long enough to hear it was a Lexus commercial.

I was reminded of this by an article in AdAge today (http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=131642) that discusses how TNT and TBS will test an ad model where commercials will be chosen more according to the content and context of the programming (to be called TVinContext. How creative.). One example they use is Victoria's Secret ads to run during What Women Want.

It'll be interesting to see if this sort of model picks up with other networks. And to see if it's successful in the eyes of the client.