A Federal Communications Commission member said TV companies should be forced to list product placements at the end of shows, much like political ads need to include attribution tags. Particularly galling to FCC commissioner Jonathan Adelstein is the common television practice of hosting "experts" on shows who are actually paid to plug certain products. He also jumped into the issue of regulating television commerce - interactive links between shows and online buying mechanisms - before it gets far off the ground, especially for kids. A 4A's rep told AdAge that older kids understand the difference between content and advertising and that there needs to be a "healthy discussion" about TV commerce before it is put in various fetters.

Adelstein's critique of what he termed the "commercialization of media," may be indicative of some inherent disadvantages traditional broadcast media will face as they develop technologies - like TV commerce - that start to make them competitive with internet media. One of the FCC's missions is to ensure that the publicly owned spectrum used for broadcast is used for the public benefit, as defined by whoever happens to make up the commission at the time.

With U.S. courts continuing to give lesser protections to commercial speech, it is possible, if not rather likely, that broadcast media will provide a less predictably welcome venue for some forms of marketing.