April 24-30 is TV Turnoff Week!!
Oops! I completely forgot about this: a campaign by AdBusters.org. You may have seen the AdBusters magazine on the stands (at least if you shop at places like Whole Foods or similar places in "loony" liberal enclaves such as the Boston area).
The week is already nearly three days over but luckily, I haven’t watched anything on TV this week except for what was picked up on the TiVo prior to April 24, and I haven’t even watched much of that (only about an hour total). *whew* Anyway, it’s not too late to stop turning off those TVs tonight!
Make sure you see these rejected ads where you can also listen to and read the egregious rejections by the networks. Fox, MTV, ABC, and most others refused all of their ads. CNN appears to be the only broadcaster that accepted any of them.
The rejected ads are all public-service type ads addressing (at various levels of indirection) such issues as consumerism, obesity, bulimia and anorexia, Global Warming, etc.
You can also read and in some cases actually listen to the rejections themselves.
Most rejections were pretty forthright and honest: "our business model is selling advertising time; why would we run an ad telling people not to buy things or telling people our other sponsors’ products are bad for them?" You can’t blame them for taking that kind of position.
But some were a little less clear: I especially love the bits about how ABC rejected them not because of any "written policy" but simply because they said so.
Most egregious was the person at ABC said that they don’t accept anything that is "controversial about issues of public importance". I seeee. So, ads about drunk driving don’t count? Or drugs? But it’s too controversial to talk about obesity, or bulimia and anorexia? Or Global Warming? And the Swift Boat ads weren’t "controversial"?
These people are also behind an annual Buy-Nothing Day -- this year’s will be November 26.
Currently, AdBusters are suing a broadcaster in Canada, and are hoping to use this precedent as a stepping stone to "reclaiming our most basic freedom - the Human Right to Communicate."
You may also want to "Sign the Media Carta"
Oh, and by the way. I don’t think that playing Sudoku on your TiVo counts. (I found apps.tv via Zatsnotfunny; I’ve forgotten what led me there in the first place. But it took about 2 seconds to get these apps running on my TiVo.)Technorati Tags: Politics media consumerism tv television economy economics environment health globalwarming globalisation adbusters advertising corporations corporateculture tivo games gadgets toys tech technology entertainment web tools downloads byjjmg
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