The Commercials / Die Werbung

TV commercials have an interesting place here. A show will play in its entirety, without commercial interruption. For a kid's show, that's about 23 minutes of television fun. Then a child's voice (for a kid's show or a man's voice for a normal show) will cheerily announce, "Here come the commercials!" Then a series of commercials will play for approximately five minutes, or so. At thirty seconds a commercial, that's ten (or more) commercials in a row. When the commercials are done, the child's voice comes back on and says, "Those were the commercials!" Then the next show begins.

For most people, the commercials must be a time to get up, pack a school bag, get a snack, or take a bathroom break. After all, you won't miss the start of your favorite show because you can listen out for the announcement of the commercials' end. I think the commercials might be Nikolas' favorite part of TV watching here. He sits, enthralled by them all: Polly Pockets, vanilla/chocolate swirl pudding, Playmobil circus world, Barbie dog show, and yogurt with candy in the package corner. So mesmerized is he by the flashing fairy wings and talking parrots and snake-attacking race track, that with every commercial, sometimes even before it's clear what it is advertising, he will call out, "I want that!"

Sometimes I think it's become more of a game rather than him really wanting every single thing that appears on the screen. Sure, I think he'd like to be able to see everything and try it out, but I don't think he really wants to own it all. At least I hope not. After all, the only thing he has actually gotten because of a commercial is the vanilla/chocolate pudding which he discovered wasn't as great as the ad made it out to be: