# What a weird time for that commercial!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-a-weird-time-for-that-commercial/148378>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [January 13, 2003, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-a-weird-time-for-that-commercial/148378 "2003-01-13T21:30:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-a-weird-time-for-that-commercial/148378/1 "2003-01-13T21:30:27Z")

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I hope I’m not in the wrong forum for this.

I just heard a rather unfortunate placement for a promo of [Hunger Point](http://us.imdb.com/Details?0335163), which is a movie about eating disorders. Right before that was a spot about some drug company looking for underweight teens to test a new supplement.

Yeah, I know this was purely by chance but my brain had a bit of trouble shifting gears that quickly.

That wasn’t the first time I encountered that sort of coincidence, I remember having just finished watching an episode of “Quincy” once; that episode featured a woman had died from some bad diet pills. What do you think came on next? A commercial for diet pills!

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**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-a-weird-time-for-that-commercial/148378/2 "2003-01-13T23:17:00Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> I know this was purely by chance

I wouldn’t be so sure: someone may have been having some fun. I know that if I had the task of allocating various sponsor spots, and I saw two that looked like they belonged together, I’d sure put them together. A commercial for constipation relief followed by one for Depends undergarments. An ad for McDonald’s followed by one for Rolaids. Not every day, mind you.

I believe I even once saw two competing kitchen doodads (not the pasta pots, but along those lines … maybe it was those pancake flipper things) go head-to-head during a commercial break. I have no doubt that engineer was having some fun.