WGBH Boston "Frontline" correspondent Douglas Rushkoff explores marketing ploys on the PBS documentary "The Persuaders." Click photo for larger image. "The Rebel Billionaire" WHEN: 8 tonight on Fox. STARRING: Richard Branson. "Frontline: The Persuaders" WHEN: 9 tonight on WQED. Correspondent: Douglas Rushkoff. "I Hate My Job" WHEN: 9 tonight on Spike TV. HOST: The Rev. Al Sharpton.

Surely you've noticed the cluttered ad environment on TV with those pop-up promos that distract from the TV show you're watching. Why are they there? Simple. Interrupting programming is yet another way to grab viewers' attention. Yet every effort to break through the advertising clutter actually ends up adding more clutter.

Leave it to "Frontline" on noncommercial (OK, make that less commercial) PBS to explore this world of "The Persuaders."

The 90-minute documentary explores new efforts at guerrilla marketing, product placement in TV shows and the many uses of market research, including in the recently concluded presidential race.

If you're completely unfamiliar with modern marketing techniques, the entire 90 minutes may be revelatory. Those in the know may grow a little weary of the program, particularly the segment on product placement, which has already been well-documented.

The market research segment is particularly amusing, as viewers see one consumer's confused reaction to questions about how he feels when eating white bread. The interviewer wants to know if the man feels "accepting," "curious," "apprehensive," "trusting," "lonely" and "afraid" among other emotional responses.

"The question was, when you eat bread do you feel lonely? Have you found people that say yes when they eat bread they feel lonely?" the consumer asks.

"Not a lot on this one," the questioner replies.

The political section of "The Persuaders" is pretty interesting, too, although it made me wish the program had aired in advance of last week's election. The show details efforts by one political consultant to employ language in the selling of an idea. Frank Luntz suggested Republicans begin referring to "estate tax" with the more emotionally charged term "death tax." He turned "Tax cuts" into "tax relief." "Global warming" morphed into "climate change," and Luntz recast "the war in Iraq" as "the war on terror."

If nothing else, this "Frontline" entry persuaded me it's worth paying attention to the marketing of the message -- maybe even more than the message itself.

'Branson's Quest for the Best'

On Sunday night Fox premiered "My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss," a spoof of NBC's "The Apprentice" and the whole subgenre of office-set reality competition shows. Usually a parody is the final nail in the coffin, and yet here is Fox trying to do an "Apprentice" rip-off with "The Rebel Billionaire: Branson's Quest for the Best" (8 tonight).

In the first of two back-to-back hourlong episodes tonight, Branson claims the winner of the competition will win a $1 million salary and the chance to run Branson's entire business empire. But he doesn't say for how long.

"Quest for the Best" is pretty much a cross between "The Apprentice" and "Fear Factor." In the premiere, Branson asks his players to perform two high-flying stunts: First they have to walk across a metal beam between two hot air balloons at 10,000 feet altitude (the contestants all wear safety wires) in a short time period. Those players who don't make it across have to do another even more extraordinary stunt.

Branson is certainly a charismatic figure, far more likable than "The Benefactor's" Mark Cuban, but aerial acrobatics aside, who needs another reality show in an already burned out genre?

'I Hate My Job'

You know what I said in the last sentence about how the reality business show genre is played out? "I Hate My Job" is Exhibit B.

Premiering tonight at 9 on Spike TV, "I Hate My Job" takes eight guys who hate their jobs (handyman, casino dealer, pool table tech, lawyer, preschool teacher) and gives them the chance to land a dream job (cartoonist, hockey coach, stuntman, comedian) if they complete various tasks related to their desired occupation put to them by the show's host, the Rev. Al Sharpton.

The most humiliating task has the guys performing their dream job on a stage in front of Sharpton. It's pretty pathetic because they prove particularly ill-suited to their dream jobs, especially the wannabe actor.

Sharpton is a charismatic figure, but his verbose pep talks are surprisingly earnest. He's a lot funnier on "The Daily Show."

"Good luck, I hope to see you on the rebound," he tells the four guys he kicks off at the end of the first hour.

"I Hate My Job" isn't funny enough to be a good comedy, and it's not interesting enough to be good drama. And it's not obnoxious enough to inspire hate. It's just a bland, boring show.