By pressing a button on their remote control they can shrink the broadcast ad to a box that fills a quarter of the screen, with the rest of the space dedicated to interactive content. Advertisers will then entice the viewer with product promotions, recipe ideas, competitions - anything to get them thinking of the product they are trying to sell. The idea is that the advertiser gets the viewer's attention for several minutes rather than just for the 30-second slot they've paid for. Unilever has been something of a pioneer of interactive advertising. The UK's first interactive commercial, broadcast last March, was for its Chicken Tonight brand, and the company has set up its own portal, called the Creative Kitchen, on Sky's Open service.
Users can order recipes and money-off vouchers and take part in quizzes and prize competitions.
Meanwhile, Unilever can gather information about the user's habits and preferences. Advocates of interactive ads insist they are much more effective than ordinary commercials. That could be put down to novelty value, but further campaigns have achieved similar results. But even Kenny admits that advertising agencies will have to come up with something pretty entertaining if they are to continue to lure viewers away from the programmes they are watching. Companies could put together short films and viewers will soon be able to bookmark ads, so they can come back to it once the programme has finished.