The Boston Red Sox are one of the most popular MLB teams, even when they are in last place, with about 224,000 household viewers per game (according to bostonglobe.com), not to mention another 107,000 radio listeners and about 36,000 people watching from Fenway Park.  However, the media tricks these people into watching a 2 ½ hour game for 3 ½ hours.  That means that one will spend about an hour watching commercials, 28% of the total viewing time.

            So why would people waste an hour of their lives watching mindless ads about cars and airlines and banks and phone companies?  Advertisers carefully choose when to play certain commercials during a television program.  They know just how many viewers a Red Sox game has, and that no matter how long and obnoxious a commercial is, they’re going to continue to watch the game.

            Between innings, players probably need about a minute to prepare and warm up; however in just commercials alone, 2-3 minutes are wasted, which doesn’t include pre-inning reports by Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy, interactions with fans, and other random facts meant to extend the game time even longer.

            Other forms of advertisement in a ordinary Red Sox game include the Amica Pitch Zone (which shows location and speed of each pitch while conveniently placing the Amica logo above it), varying billboards behind home plate to shove Dunkin’ Donuts and Amtrack.com in the viewer’s face, and Foxwoods, CVS, and W.B Mason plastered all over the Green Monster.  People wonder how baseball players make such a large salary; it is in part thanks to these advertisements.  In 2001, John Hancock Financial made a deal with Fenway Park to install the infamous John Hancock signature above centerfield (sportsbusinessdaily.com); the company pays more than $1 million per year for the sign, which since then has made the Red Sox organization and Fenway Park nearly $14 million.  That is only one of hundreds of signs. Now add that to the 112 commercials shown throughout a game that could pay tens of thousands of dollars each depending on commercial length.  

            It is easy to overlook the constant flow of advertisements because society is centered directly on media, and what keeps the media alive are the various forms of advertising.  People in this day and age are trained to expect some type of commercial whenever they watch T.V., listen to the radio, or surf the internet.  However, media and advertisement continue to go hand and hand, depending upon each other.  It is difficult to determine which controls the other because their purposes are so intertwined.  Media benefits from advertising just as much as advertising benefits from the media, to perfectly complement one another.