My Sunday night routine consists of me sitting cross-legged on my living room floor with an algebra textbook in my lap, a pencil in my right hand and the TV remote in my left. It’s become a ritual to solve my math problems during the commercial breaks of the TV show, “Revenge.” Most nights, these 3-5 minute intermissions are plenty of time to finish my homework.

   Distractions such as my math work worry marketing executives who are trying to brand their product in these brief 30-second intervals. Simple advertisements do not yield as much value as they use to because of the ubiquitous amount found on TV today. According to the Huffington post we are exposed to 250-3000 advertisements daily. In this competitive advertising environment, Target has thought up of new innovative way in which viewers will not tune out their ads. In 2012, they bought the full 10 minutes of advertisement content for one episode and joined with revenge writers to integrate the ads within the story line. Target chief marketer Jeff Jones called it a  "moment in marketing history that people remember”.

   Revenge labeled this sponsorship as “the gift of revenge”, claiming the episode would consist of zero commercials only short videos which gave clues to the mid-season cliffhanger.  The actors and actresses were required to trend this hash tag on twitter promoting the episode weeks before it aired. Target’s exclusive partnership gave the show a boost of revenue securing their airtime and encouraging their renewal for a third season.

   Target also made out on the deal. Revenge was the perfect platform to launch Target’s collection of clothes and home décor. Viewers are compelled to the lavish Hampton lifestyle of these characters. If billionaires such as main character, Emily Throne can wear a Target dress while sitting on a yacht in the Hamptons then the average person should too. Their clothes may not have compelled me to drive to the store that night to buy their products, but the residual effects of the ads are still in my mind over a year later.

   The key to Target’s advertisements were that they contained necessary information about the plot and were written using the same style as the show. At times, I grew frustrated watching the episode because the commercials were indistinguishable from the story. Target took away the entertainment of viewers by dragging out context clues, in order to gain more attention and screen time for their products. As more TV shows are catching on to this technique, will this become the next revolution to entertainment? I hope not, otherwise I won’t have any time to finish my math homework.