Commercials contain culturally-loaded slices of modern society. Watching commercials introduces students to many cross-cultural topics ranging from gestures and body language to more probing issues of values, behaviors and ways of thinking, social problems, stereotypes, and idiosyncrasies. Furthermore, CMs are laden with culture-specific imagery, symbolism, and subconscious messages that can serve as vehicles for social commentary. Yet, since the purpose of commercials is to promote products in the forefront of change, their creators expend considerable effort, research, and money to keep them up to date. Commercials contain visual, verbal, and written images.
Commercials present their messages in words and pictures which complement and support each other.
Furthermore, advertisers purposely bombard listeners with key words and slogans to the beat of some catchy tune that stays imprinted in students' minds for days. The same should hold true of commercials. Yet for all its merits, video can be abused or misused, for example, as a Friday afternoon respite from regular classroom activities. Teachers who rely wholly on the medium to entertain without tying this input to the overall content of the class risk discrediting video or in extreme cases forfeiting this resource if school administrators see it as a tool for unprepared teachers to kill time during the waning minutes of class. Using video to teach English in content-based classes validates video in the eyes of administrators, parents, and students.