Tracking embedded ads

On the fourth floor of an office building in this green Connecticut town, Sarah Martin goes to work every day as a television watcher.

She doesn’t mind watching “Ellen” and “Lost.” She hates the days she has to sit through “American Chopper.”

Unfortunately, she can’t fast-forward.

Martin’s job is to count when brand names such as Coca-Cola or Cadillac or Yamaha appear in TV shows – on a soda can, whizzing past in a street scene, flashing on a billboard in the background, anywhere within the camera’s range. She works for research firm Nielsen, which provides the information to advertisers who want to keep tabs on where competitors’ products are popping up in TV shows.