As TiVo and other digital video recorders captivate an ever wider swath of the American TV-viewing public, advertisers are in full panic mode. After all, how are the companies that pay for commercial television’s otherwise unsustainable programming supposed to see a return on their considerable advertising investment if every other viewer has the capability to simply skip the commercials? The answer seems to be in a new generation of product placement, with dramatic storylines actively working sponsoring brands into the action, a concept which viewers may eventually find even more irritating than traditional advertising.