When everyone is wrong

摘要

Time was when the airwaves were full of commercials for telecommunications services. Ever since-competition hit the long-distance industry in the late 1970s, there has been a growing flood of advertising, dwarfed only by the telemarketing calls. One unintended result of the Federal Communications Commission's half-decision on unbundling in February has been to derail much of the telecom television advertising, at least here in Illinois, fertile ground for a state regulatory face-off. Wireless service providers keep courting the customers in ways both cute and irritating. The cable and DBS players are also out there offering deals, but local and longdistance companies don't show up as often and when they do, it's more to flog each other than to promote a service. So now, instead of Joan Rivers, Candace Bergen or even, God help us all, Carrot Top, we are more frequently treated to generic faces, disguised as outrageous overdressed cowboys or patiently outraged consumers.