Tuesday, April 17, 2007



Turn it off. And leave it off.
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5 comments:

Katie said...

Are you kidding? I think sweeps start that week! Seriously though, T.V. is not evil. There is a lot of good programming out there.

But since this ad takes a "think of the children" stance, let me take a moment to vent.

To Parents: You are responsible for what your kids watch. If you don't like what they're watching, turn it off, and sent them outside to get some exercise. Don't like the video games they're playing? Take them away. Don't like the sites they visit on the internet? Then block them.

But don't sit there and preach to the rest of us that the shows we watch are inappropriate. (I'm looking at you Parents Television Council.)

Don't like it? Don't watch it. Boycott the advertisers too, if you're so inclined. That's your right. Just leave the rest of us out of it, OK?

9:24 PM
Mac said...

Katie--

I'm with you. Unfortunately, way too many parents are TV zombies themselves and have no sense of context whatsoever.

9:28 PM
Anonymous said...

I like AdBusters in general (they help me find the boundaries of my beliefs by showing me ones that I agree with and ones that I think are definitely past that boundary). And I like the motivation behind TV Turn Off Week, or at least one of them: that we should not easily accept depending on any one source of information as much as we have come to depend on the tube. Should I have a week for every different thing?

Where does the sensible desire to not let something/others control you turn into strange vilification of a tool? TV may have shaped my memeset to always have the filter of consumerism, but it also brought me a wider view of the Cosmos (thank you, Sagan) than I would have ever found in my local, underfunded , library. This particular ad, with the screaming guy, strikes me as trying to inspire the same unthinking fear that I detest when it comes from the tube. I mean, wouldn't any object placed in that ad seem just as sinister/silly? Toaster Turn Off Week, anyone? Have you come to depend to much on your reading lamp?

Turn the ad you've embedded around. Imagine those kids are watching multiple theories on the universe back to the dawn of time, important historical events, or a morality tale that captures some part of the human condition. I've seen all those things and more on the tube. Television, seeing things far removed in time, space, and reality, is a remarkable and wonderful tool. If considering that, and how we want to use this powerful tool were more the point of the turn off week, I could support it with fewer reservations about it being a pop counter-culture fashion trend and being twisted up with irrational vilification.

12:20 PM
Anonymous said...

I have to agree that there is intelligent programming...National Geographic, Discovery Channel, History Channel,and a bunch of others. And I'd be lost without LOST.

8:36 PM
Mac said...

I've seen some damned good stuff on TV too. It's not TV I hate: it's our collective wish to sit staring at it even when what's on is complete crap. And as Katie said, that's ultimately up to us.

Kill your TV -- but make an exception for Redstar documetaries! ;-)

11:05 PM

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