Lightning crashed from the dark skies over London and thunder reverberated in its byways one evening last week, as C-day came to Britain. "Zero hour is on us," intoned a voice over the nation's TV sets.
"Citizens of London, wish us Godspeed." Within an hour, some 2,000,000 Britons had watched their first television commercial—a tube of Gibbs toothpaste sliding majestically down a mountain stream in a cake of ice while an announcer crooned, "It's cool, cool, cool." For years, the debate over permitting American-style commercial TV to invade the unsullied air waves of Britain has rent the nation with a fury unmatched...
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