History Main / CommercialPopUp

* In March of 2001, YTV's "The Zone" block had a subplot involving "Yokomites", literal bugs that would show up at random points in the show. [[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gDa3qlOGBw Here is the only surviving footage of that subplot.]]

A new(-ish) trend of a commercial blurb in the form of a "pop-up" style graphic (audio optional) during a show. Commonly called "bugs" by broadcasters, especially the small, semitransparent logos that appear in the lower right corner of the screen more or less continuously (in this case, it's usually to identify a network). Less commonly called "screen boogers" by annoyed viewers. The larger straps like the one shown in the page pic are called lower-thirds and yes, they do take up 33% of the vertical screen space, sometimes more.

* Parodied in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'': Ling-Ling (who speaks in pseudo-Japanese and can only be understood through subtitles) is trying to convince the other housemates to help him, when suddenly a bug for ''Series/TheDailyShow'' appears, obscuring everything he's saying. Another character exclaims "Ling-Ling's right! I love the Daily Show!"

** When ''WesternAnimation/TakAndThePowerOfJuju'' and ''BackAtTheBarnyard'' were originally premiering, Nickelodeon would promote the show by either having a giant splat of milk suddenly appear on-screen, or having Tak appear and summon a giant yellow tornado. They later did ''much'' subtler promotions for shows, such as having a character from ''The Thundermans'' freezing the Nick channel bug.
** Nick promoted ''Nick Studio 10'' by having it '''''interrupt shows to show a random piece of footage.''''' Naturally, this led to the block getting a LOT of backlash. They also did the same to promote ''SanjayAndCraig'' by having a promo cut in after a show's intro is finished.

* In the last few years of its run, ToonDisney did similar things, not only popping up advertisements, but also taking up a full third of the screen to show you a loud purple pattern giving the name of the show you are watching, for the benefit of parents who might find this more helpful in their decision-making process than just looking at the giant robots fighting on-screen.

* USANetwork used to have non-transparent bugs featuring Series/{{Monk}} poking at the bug itself, but they've since switched to mostly transparent USA logos and sometimes messages that a new episode of whatever show will be starting at x time.
* TelevisionWithoutPity forums has [[http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=3173733&view=findpost&p=10568338 this post]] about a forum-er who saw TheReveal of a tattoo in a ''7thHeaven'' rerun get covered up with a pop-up.

* [[http://www.rugratonline.com/rrawar2b.htm This article]] from a ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' fansite has a minor complaint about bugs covering up presenter captions on the Kids' Choice Awards.

* A VH-1 advertisement for some show called "Scream Queens". The ad manifests itself as a high-pitched scream during an otherwise quiet moment in a show.

* On NBC's kids line, the NBC logo falls off and a child's hands glue the logo back on. This happens several times each kids show, leading to some FridgeLogic that maybe the kid should try a stronger adhesive.

* Though technically not a pop-up, the "TV ratings" logos used on American TV appear to be getting bigger and bigger, with it now not uncommon for the icon to over as much as 1/5 or more of the screen, obscuring the scene noticeably. Fortunately, rumors at the time of their introduction that they'd be required on DVD releases as well turned out to be untrue.

* The premiere airing of one episode of ''JusticeLeague'' had a bug that featured a giant robot, including metallic stomping and explosion sounds that actually obscured several lines of dialogue. Needless to say, the fans were not pleased.
* And then there is the incident with the season 2 finale of ''TransformersAnimated''. The credits [[TheStinger incuded]] a humorous dialogue between [[spoiler:Megatron and Starscream's head, floating about stranded in an unidentified region of space]]. But ''both'' of the original English-language airings (first YTV, then Creator/CartoonNetwork shortly afterward) dubbed over that dialogue with interstitials, promting mass rage within the ''Transformers'' fandom (or at least those who appreciate ''Animated'').

* When ''Series/LazyTown'' aired on Cbeebies, an ad usually popped up that had a yellow blob "thinking" of whatever show was coming up next, covering half the screen during the OncePerEpisode song and staying there for about 15 seconds.

* TNT's NBA coverage will use a free throw to sneak one of these in (usually for one of TNT or even {{TBS}}'s original productions) sometimes, along with an EnforcedPlug by the announcers.
* One episode of ''FriskyDingo'' had a message on the screen for 15 seconds at the start that said "This is where [[Creator/AdultSwim the network]] puts that mammoth bug." Then, "Enjoy the show." BitingTheHandHumor doesn't even begin to cover it.
* Someone on late-night TeleToon must be an epic troll, because they are constantly doing these commercial pop-ups during ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' over things that require the bottom of the screen, such as Toshi's subtitles or the "Bill Publishermann" gag.

* On G4's ''{{X-Play}}'', bugs became so common (and occasionally covered up important words or numbers, such as game ratings, at the corner or bottom of the screen), that, in one game review, they inserted a number of bugs all over the screen at random intervals that obscured it completely.

* They make DVD releases more desirable than off-air recordings
* They "brand" the video feed, making bootleg copies easier to identify.

*** And yet, ''The Simpsons'' is one of the very few shows where real commercial pop-ups don't appear because the producers have a contract with Fox that bans them.

These ads are typically not for products, but for the network's programming. Often, they advertise what show is on next or later that day on the same channel. Sometimes, it can be a commercial popup indicating [[ViewersAreMorons what show you are watching and what network you are watching it on]]. The stations justify this because some people [=DVR=] and record shows--this is also how the networks can remind people who are watching a pirated program where the program originated from, and ensure pirates at least buy the DVD to pirate from.

* The BBC do these with small bars at the bottom or the top of the screen for the next show. Normally doesn't happen on BBC One, but [[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8643684.stm once did]] during the climax of a ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode, for the following Lloyd-Webber/Graham Norton reality star search and included an animated version of Norton. This led to official complaints from over ''five and a half thousand'' viewers, it angered so many viewers (including CharlieBrooker and SimonPegg) that "Doctor Who" and "Graham Norton" actually became trending topics on Twitter because of it. As seen in the page quote, Norton did indulge in some SelfDeprecation over the incident on his show, culminating in another animated version of him popping up and being promptly exterminated by a Dalek.

-->--'''Graham Norton'''

* GameShowNetwork used to have a huge bug for [=PlayMania=] that went two-thirds of the way across the screen and about a quarter of the way up. Just barely wide enough to obscure the password in ''{{Password}}'' and its revivals, the correct answer shown briefly to home viewers in ''[[DoubleDare1976 Double Dare]]'', etc.

* In the first airing of the ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' episode [[Recap/TheLegendOfKorraS1E6AndTheWinnerIs "And the Winner Is..."]], a bug of [[WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants Spongebob]] laughing shows up just as Korra is shown falling. It's even become a [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/inappropriate-timing-spongebob-banner meme]].

** To plug ''WesternAnimation/JimmyNeutron'', Nickelodeon had these with Jimmy coming up and doing a short as one of these bugs. They diverted the attention from the show to this kids doing experiments anywhere on the screen at any time. He did stuff like modifying the original bug at first, but it grew more clever. During an episode of ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'', the kid came in, hit a button, and the whole episode was replaced by a puppet show version of itself. There were also bugs where they replaced large segments of the show with a bunch of random clips from all of their other shows. However, unlike the puppets, it replaced an actual part of the episode, and often times, the punchline of the show's best joke.

->''"Recently, I [[PromotedFanboy achieved my lifelong ambition]]: I appeared on Series/DoctorWho. Yes, I secured the prestigious role of '[[SelfDeprecation Man Ruining the End of the Episode]]'".''

* When ''LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'' moved to USANetwork, a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Fi3j1TMpmI gag ad]] was created where Goren wanted to know what the hell the USA bug in the corner of the screen was. He then tried unsuccessfully to interact with it before declaring it "weird".

[[caption-width-right:300:[[MoodWhiplash Way to keep the mood there]], WesternAnimation/{{SpongeBob|SquarePants}}.]]

New trend of a commercial blurb in the form of a "pop-up" style graphic (audio optional) during a show. Commonly called "bugs" by broadcasters, especially the small, semitransparent logos that appear in the lower right corner of the screen more or less continuously (in this case, it's usually to identify a network). Less commonly called "screen boogers" by annoyed viewers. The larger straps like the one shown in the page pic is called a lower-third and yes, they do take up 33% of the vertical screen space, sometimes more.

New trend of a commercial blurb in the form of a "pop-up" style graphic (audio optional) during a show. Commonly called "bugs" by broadcasters, especially the small, semitransparent logos that appear in the lower right corner of the screen more or less continuously (in this case, it's usually to identify a network). Less commonly called "screen boogers" by annoyed viewers.

* GameShowNetwork, later in its run, had a feature where viewers could send text messages to the screen (at about 50p a time)--this was initially performed by zooming out and quarter-screening the programme and putting the texts in some other part of the screen. At one point, the chat's background would reflect the programme in question- usually a change of colour scheme to match the studio. However, in each background, the programme window would be in a different part of the screen, and that would have its effect on the psotion of the chat--on the bottom quarter of the screen on one show, down the right half on the next. Also, the transition from one background to the other would be a jerky fade to the channel logo and back. And it would invariably be about two minutes late for the start of the show. Eventually, the channel got through this phase and stuck to one layout. Initially a {{Bloomberg}}-like L shape where the picture made up two-thirds, this later became an overlay for the bottom third of the screen with otherwise full screen video, obsuring any programme captions. Once this got back to the channel's show producers, they raised the position of their captions to above the texts. However, GN broadcasted all over Europe, and the texts were only shown in the UK. So now while the UK had readable captions, people watching in Italy, where the channel was broadcast from, were left scratching their heads wondering why the name of the game they were seeing was halfway up the screen.

* Related: ''{{Neopets}}'' spoofs internet popups with their game Advert Attack--the game's entire challenge is navigating around or getting rid of fake ads that dominate the screen so you could actually get at the game's controls.

* When ''LazyTown'' aired on Cbeebies, an ad usually popped up that had a yellow blob "thinking" of whatever show was coming up next, covering half the screen during the OncePerEpisode song and staying there for about 15 seconds.