Slow-'em-down spots get zapped by ad execs; 'DVR busters' generate buzz-but consumers continue to fast-forward.(News)(advertising executives)(digital video recorders)

Advertising Age, August, 2007 by Steinberg, Brian

Byline: BRIAN STEINBERG

bsteinberg@adage.com

tom trenta sat on his couch in fall 2004 watching a recorded Bears football game with his son, using his TiVo to scan a touchdown play one moment at a time. That's when he was seized by an intriguing notion: Couldn't someone create an ad that could be spotted as a viewer moved from frame to frame?

One year later, his idea hit pay dirt. Mr. Trenta, at the time an account planner at Interpublic Group of Cos.' Foote, Cone & Belding, pitched the concept to his client, Yum Brands' KFC, asking executives there to embed a coupon code for a new buffalo-chicken sandwich within a commercial. Viewers with digital video recorders would be enticed to use the devices to rewind the ad in search of a potential...

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