Adweek has an article on the advertising industry debate over whether advertising is an art or a science. And, unsurprisingly, TiVo gets roped into the discussion as the best know market disrupter today.

“How do you make a TiVo-proof commercial? Everybody wants to know the answer,” says Todd Juenger, vp, general manager of research and measurement at TiVo, which introduced its Stop Watch measurement tool that gives clients access to second-by-second ratings of commercials and programming. Instead of a traditional focus group, the system pools information from the viewing habits of TiVo’s 4 million subscribers.

TiVo studies have shown that the context in which a commercial is surrounded plays a critical role in whether it will be skipped. “It’s like a restaurant,” he says. “Even if you have the world’s finest restaurant, if you are in a crappy location, you’re still not going to get the customers you would get in a good location.”

In some dayparts, direct response does well, in others automotive ads. “It comes back to the environment and the target audience,” he stresses. “It can sometimes be more important than how creative the ad is to begin with. If they are in the market for a home gym, they’ll watch that commercial, even if it’s not what is traditionally thought of as a creative ad.”

I thought the article was interesting overall, as a look into an industry (advertising) I’m only peripherally aware of.

Well, it looks like the USA Today article I spotted last night was just the first to cover the official launch. Today Comcast and TiVo put out a press release announcing the official launch of the TiVo software on Comcast in the Boston area.

TV fans in the Greater Boston area now have a new choice for recording their favorite programs with the launch of the Comcast Digital Video Recorder (DVR) with TiVo® service. The new service combines TiVo’s award-winning interface and exclusive features, including WishList® searches, TiVo Suggestions and Season Pass™ recordings, with Comcast’s comprehensive channel lineup and massive On Demand library - which includes the most high-definition viewing choices on the market - in one box.

It certainly is garnering a lot of press: USA Today, The Boston Globe, AdWeek, and countless blogs.

Including Doug Aamoth of CrunchGear who has had it installed and have posted a ‘first look video‘.

Adweek has an interesting article on the high-stakes war of words being waged between the Blu-ray and HD DVD camps. Both sides are stepping up their marketing efforts, and increasing their marketing spend, to win more converts to their formats.

“It’s now a real format war,” said Steve Martin, president of WPP Group’s SicolaMartin, Austin, Texas, the agency that handled the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) trade group—backed by Hitachi, LG Electronics, Matsushita Electric (Panasonic), Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony and Thomson—until last summer when the BDA jumped to movie-advertising specialty shop Trailer Park, Hollywood, Calif., signaling the marketing emphasis to come. “My feeling is that the power of the studios is so strong in the Blu-ray camp … it may be the decisive factor,” Martin said. “In any case, I would expect a significant increase in marketing. [HD-DVD promoter] Toshiba won’t go down without a fight. Once you’re all-in, you have to go all the way.”