American broadcasting, unique among media industries, relied on sponsors and their ad agencies for program content from the 1920s through the 1950s. Some sponsors broadcast educational or culturally uplifting programs to burnish their corporate images. By the mid-1960s, however, commercial broadcasting had transformed, and advertisers could only buy interstitial minutes for interrupting commercials, during which they wooed cynical consumers with entertaining soft-sell appeals. The midcentury shifts in institutional power in US broadcasting among corporate sponsors, advertising agencies, and radio/television networks reflected a fundamental shift in beliefs about how to use broadcasting as an advertising medium.

美国广播在媒体行业中独树一帜，从 1920 年代到 1950 年代，节目内容依赖赞助商及其广告代理商。一些赞助商播放教育或文化振奋人心的节目，以提升他们的企业形象。然而，到 1960 年代中期，商业广播发生了变化，广告商只能购买插播时间来打断广告，在此期间，他们以娱乐性的软销售诉求来吸引愤世嫉俗的消费者。世纪中叶，美国广播机构在企业赞助商、广告代理和广播/电视网络之间的权力转移，反映了关于如何将广播用作广告媒介的信念发生了根本性的转变。