Complex sentence: They needed commercial endorsements that people found interesting, not merely informative, so ads were dramatized to mimic the popular soap operas of the time, which were sponsored and produced by soap companies like Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, and Lever Brothers.
Split into simpler sentences: They needed commercial endorsements that people found interesting, not merely informative, so ads were dramatized to fit with the popular soap operas programs of the time. The "soaps" as these shows would come to be called, were sponsored and produced by soap companies like Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, and Lever Brothers.