Hiiiii! I agree, that first picture you posted is a perfect beef commercial. Now my stomach is really growling!
ETA: My mom had those same Corelle plates!
Never heard of it either, though it sounds tasty. Living in TX now, lived in CT, VA and IL before that.
The French word is ‘tartine’ and it has crossed over into English to a very limited degree.
In the restaurant I worked at in NW Indiana in the '80’s they had something like this they called the “Hungry Steelworker”. I don’t think they make it anymore (maybe because there aren’t many steelworkers left). Never heard of a Commercial or Manhattan. Where’s the Beef?..Wendy’s Commercial.
South Dakota here. We just call that a Hot Beef or Hot Turkey. We also have/had a Hot Hamburger. Haven’t seen one on a menu in years. Depending on where you got it, it may or may not have come with a side.
Also in the never the phrase camp.
With bread on top, just a hot x sandwich. Without the bread on top it is an open faced x sandwich.
And if the x is turkey then the mashed potatoes should be stuffing.
Yeah, I might just get slapped if I try calling them “tartines” in earnest. 
I’ll stick with “open-faced sandwich.”
Upstate NY and not only have I never heard the term beef commercial, I’ve never heard the term beef Manhattan.
It’s always just hot [meat] sandwich or open-faced [meat] sandwich.
Used to be that you could tell the beef from the turkey because the beef was covered in 40 weight motor oil and the turkey in more amber 5 weight motor oil. The gravy’s gotten a lot better over the years.
Open-faced is always what we called it here in West Virginia.
Another from Minnesota, where it’s a hot beef plate, more than likely served with canned whole-kernel corn.
I knew what a commercial is from a really old thread right here in this forum - but I don’t have a link for it.
I ate a commercial once. It left a film on my teeth.
I’ve lived my whole life in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and I never heard it called that before.
Regards,
Shodan
Another vote for thought you’d typoed the thread title. Live in North Carolina, raised in South Carolina.
I flew over Wisconsin and Minnesota once, and it wasn’t offered as a meal choice on the plane.
That’s terrible! Please tell me they offered hot dish.
Or at least a jello salad.
Why is a hot open-faced beef or turkey sandwich called a “commercial” anyway? That doesn’t make any sense.
Incidentally, I’ve lived most of my life in California and the Pacific Northwest and, until this thread, I’ve never heard anyone refer to a hot beef or turkey sandwich as a “commercial”?
I grew up eating this in California (well, with turkey, mostly as an after-Thanksgiving thing). But we just called it “hot open-faced turkey sandwich.” Never done it with beef unless you count SOS which we sometimes do with leftover beef and beef gravy rather than the more traditional military way.
When I first read “turkey commercial” in the OP, my only reference is a family friend who sometimes refers to perfect items as a commercial. You know how food in commercials always looks so wonderful - meats perfectly browned, burgers bulging with giant patties, tomatoes glistening with fake droplets of water, cheese that stretches out two feet, etc. When she sees a home-cooked meal that has that level of perfection, she’ll say “That’s a ____ commercial!”
How so? The meat is shredded or sliced, not a patty. There is no egg and it’s not on rice. It’s got gravy slathered all over it, sure, but that’s the only similarity.
To the OP, I haven’t heard of this and I’m from Hawaii and have lived in Seattle and am currently in Los Angeles. It’s always been called a hot turkey or hot beef sandwich. They’re basically sliced turkey or beef sandwiches with only the meats as filling, cut in half on a diagonal, a scoop of mashed potatoes between them, and gravy all over. No green beans or other veggies.
Shit, I want one now.