The longest commercial in the world

Like many, I watched most of the American Idol finale last night.  Each time I watch American Idol, I inescapably feel that I am watching the longest commercial in the world--about 30 hours long (11 weeks x 2 or 3 hours/week).

Let's look at the basic premise of the show which is, besides making massive amounts of advertising revenues, to promote these upcoming performers.  Several of the top contestants on the show will get record contracts.  Most of those will be with American Idol's producers' record label, with which they have contracts.  So, in the end, the point of the entire show was to get us to fall in love with them and buy their records label.  It is really just a super extended commercial, not unlike those infomercials that demonstrate a product for exorbitant amounts of time while pretending to be just a normal TV talk show.

In addition to the basic premise, the celebrities who "condescend" to perform on the show do so in order to promote their new album or song or movie.  Last night, Bryan Adams performed.  The next day, advertisements for his new album or concert tour (I don't remember which) were running on the radio.  Mariah Carey out of the goodness of her heart mentored the AI contestants...oh wait, wasn't her new album coming out at the same time?  Even the appearance of Jim Carey on the show was in conjunction with the release of "Horton Hears a Who," even to the point that he wore elephant ears and nose while sitting in the audience.

Now, I like the show.  I like to watch great performances.  But I think we need to call American Idol what it is...the longest commercial in the world.