Or rather, how they were broadcast on television.

They had a space and a time, they were not uncomfortably specific, you could make the decision not to watch them by changing the channel or go to the bathroom for a while and come back. Programs and movies were designed or edited in such a way that rather than an interruption, they felt like a pause.

Because that’s what they were: Advertising Pauses.

Not like now, which are Advertising Interruptions, Advertising Invasions.

Advertising “Disrespect for the Privacy and Time of the Users”.

EDIT: I love how almost everyone assumed that by “old” I meant commercials from the last century (90s, 80s) when I was thinking more like mid 2000s