The other 28 and a half seconds were just copy mandatories anyway.

Engaging at Any Speed? Commercials Put to Test - New York Times

It's hard to believe this article and the people and activities in it aren't a goof. Desperate media sales types trying to prove that 30 second commercials mashed by a DVR into 1.5 seconds of ultra-high speed gobbledegook still work?

Anyway, is it just us old farts that remember the first appearance of these little nuggets circa 1987 in Max Headroom? They called them "blipverts" then, and they had the unfortunate effect of blowing the viewer's head to pieces. Too much data in too little time, apparently.

That wouldn't be a problem now. Most current spots are so content-less, you could condense 100 of them into a nanosecond and you'd still be safe.