When I got Tivo a few months ago, I was excited by the possibility of streamlining my television habits. I could watch the shows that I usually miss because they are on at odd times, as well as the shows that overlap with shows my wife wants to watch. I could watch at my convenience, hit pause whenever something else demands my attention. Best of all, I could fast forward through the commercials. In other words, I was no longer a slave to TV. It worked for me. I can watch what I want, when I want.

So after three months of Tivo bliss, I came to a stunning realization. Sometimes I actually want to watch commercials! I thought it was a fluke when fast forwarding through the commercials I had the urge to rewind to see some of the ads based on seeing a single frame for a split second. I resisted the urge and assured myself that no advertisement was worth rewinding for. But this kept happening, and finally I caved in. I hit rewind.

This experience has really altered my thinking about commercials. I used to think that in an environment where we are bombarded by ads constantly, most people have become immune. When given the opportunity to silence the ads that scream for our attention constantly, wouldn’t we guiltlessly hit mute? Maybe not. People are much more sophisticated when it comes to how they interact with ads than simply building up an immunity to them. You might think that people hate ads, but in fact the opposite is true: there are some ads that we want to see. This is where the human ad filter is so impressive. We have the ability to filter everything out except for the things that have the possibility of having value to us. While it may seem like we have learned to ignore advertising, the reality is that we have just developed a filtering system that allows us to only see what we want.