Those commercials must be effective because the moment I saw each example described throughout this thread (example: "Michael Crawford", "Netflix", ...etc.), a picture and theme came to mind immediately to go with those names, and while I may not be able to remember the exact commercial details, It still rings a bell in my head every time I see something associated to those names / brands. Now that I think of it, I never even really listen to those commercials..
Since I'm eating, I don't want to explain much further, but some commercials also work subconsciously, whether you like them or not.
Off the top of my head, I cannot even remember any commercial that I've heard on the radio. However, the moment I see the name or something associated with the name / label / product, it all comes back t mind, whether consciously or subconsciously.
I'm not sure how bad the commercials really are to the listening audience, but one thing I know is that if I love the station or the station's good enough, I always come back (and this is coming from a radio freak - who actually flips around out of interest for radio stations!). Sometimes me coming back means I may hear the first few commercials of a set then the last few, but miss the middle ones, so I wouldn't necessarily say having a slot near the end is bad. If I go pee or load some latin booty bass or something onto my mp3 player then come back just in time to hear the last two commercials, or if someone tunes in near the end of a commercial set, or when they announce something like "more music in 60 seconds..", I'm sure the people who have the later end of the commercial set are glad to get those people. I'd be more worried about the middle than the end.
Well, too bad there are no microwave or oven commercials because my food just got cold and I probably would've considered ordering/purchasing a certain brand of a food warming product based purely on a radio ad just so I could come back and post about it. Well, I lost my appetite anyway, so I guess I'll just go put it in my General Electric fridge I got from Sears.