Not in the early days. The Soap in Soap Operas was because you never knew when the ad for the soap company sponsoring the show would show up. There wasn't a break, it was ", and then I used my XYZ soap to"... until you got to the "and" the audience didn't know the ad was coming.

The ad breaks came later as TV realized that the ad was forever part of the show and so they didn't get more money when the did a rerun.