MEDIA BEAT: What We'd Miss Without Commercials

• Originally posted in IGC member conference: labr.newsline
  Date: August 27, 1999
  Posted by: [email protected]
  
  

  /* Written 4:06 PM  Aug 27, 1999 by [email protected] in labr.newsline */
  /* ---------- "What We'd Miss Without Commercials" ---------- */
  
              
          
  
  THINK OF ALL WE'D MISS WITHOUT COMMERCIALS
  
  
  
  
  By Norman Solomon   /   Creators Syndicate
           
  
           
  
           
  	A new machine is scaring the corporate daylights out of television
  broadcasters and cable networks. It's called a "personal video recorder,"
  and it can do a lot of things that VCRs can't. One of those technical
  advances is truly wondrous -- the ability to filter out commercials before
  they reach TV screens.
  
  
  
  
  
  	Such ad-zapping potential will surely interest millions of
  Americans. But so far, media coverage of this techno-marvel has been
  sparse. 
  
  	Because of its "computer-like hard drive," the personal video
  recorder can automatically "pause or rewind a live program, record while
  you play back, and compile only the kind of programs you like," CNN
  reported on Aug. 18. "And it can do something else that has media
  companies shivering. It can easily skip every commercial." 
  
  	This commercial-skipping feature now worries some media
  conglomerates so much that they're threatening to file a lawsuit to
  prevent it from going on the market. But the specter of ad-free
  television will surely delight many Americans. 
  
  	For the TV industry, a nightmare would become reality if viewers
  had the option of making commercials disappear. But what would we be
  missing? If we could turn a television into a commercial-free zone, we'd
  do without loud and flashy ads that: 
  
  	* equate possession of expensive products with excitement and
  fulfillment; 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  	* often present sleek new cars as thinly veiled vehicles of sexual
  thrills; 
  
  	* portray the power to buy as the power to determine one's own
  destiny; 
  
  	* supply young people with an endless array of on-screen role
  models who are fixated on buying, owning and displaying fashionable
  possessions; 
  
  	* glorify business executives for using the latest computer
  technologies to show how savvy they are; 
  
  	* link sexuality with access to pricey goods and services; 
  
  
  
  
  
  	* connect beer drinking with youthful romance;
  
  	* correlate the most up-to-date purchases with passionate intensity,
  charisma and personal depth;
  
  	* pioneer in the realms of illogic by insisting that people can
  become uniquely themselves by buying what many other people are buying; 
  
  	* convey to viewers that they're only really alive when they're
  shopping or showing off what they've bought; 
  
  	* perpetuate the notion that Americans should be preoccupied with
  what to purchase and how to satiate themselves while giving short shrift
  to deeper values
  
  	      
  
  	* treat the appearance of a woman's body as the most important
  aspect of who she is; 
  
  	* bolster the prevailing media images of gender roles by showing
  men and women acting in stereotypical ways; 
  
  	* exclude gay people from the frequent portrayals of couples who
  are in intimate relationships; 
  
  	* extol as wonderful, in armed forces recruiting ads, the training
  of young people to operate weaponry so that they can kill other human
  beings; 
  
  	* desecrate some of the finest rock-and-roll songs of the 1960s by
  using them as soundtracks for selling everything from automobiles to
  running shoes; 
  
  	* encourage people to spend beyond their means, even if the result
  is intractable credit-card debt; 
  
  	* reinforce the idea that everyone has, or should have, a price
  ... by featuring a range of athletes and creative artists who
  enthusiastically urge us to spend money on commodities that are clearly
  of minimal importance; 
  
  	* mock people who don't fit in with the crowd because of how they
  look or what they own; 
  
  
  	           
       
  
  
  * freeze the frames of television viewing with constant messages
  that we should keep wanting to buy, buy, buy ... without bothering to
  ask why. 
  
  	Television without commercials? It sounds like a dream come
  true. But such a turn of events would hardly clear the air. After all,
  the programs would still remain -- and they, too, deserve close
  scrutiny. Many of the same values proclaimed by commercials are implicit
  on TV shows that fill America's homes. 
           
              
    
  
  _________________________________________________
  
  Norman Solomon's latest book is "The Habits of Highly Deceptive Media."
  	         
              
    	         
             
  
  
            
  
  

•