:!: There is an evil, evil website (http://www.commercialalert.org/) 
that is trying to destroy TV as we know it. They are introducing legislation to make it so that networks have to make a pop-up on shows that use product placement notifying the viewer that this shot of X (Coke, Pringles, etc) is a paid product placement and an advertisement. Now I don’t know about you, but I have pop-ups on the web. Do we really need them on TV also? What this is going to do is make product placement obsolete. This is a MAJOR avenue for fundraising and is frivolous draconian legislation that harkens to communism. I would encourage everyone on this board to get everyone they know to go to the site. There is a pre-programmed, skewed, inaccurate, and misleading form where all you have to do is fill in your name, address, etc, and it will be sent to your government representatives. I encourage you to replace this tripe with the modified version below. (please change it as you see fit, and please include your own contact info because they won’t accept it if they don’t know your name, address, and phone number) Then go to http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm, find your senators, and send it to them directly. Then go to http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.html, find your representative and send it to him/her directly also. DON’T LET THESE PEOPLE DESTROY OUR INDUSTRY. :x
Dear Senator/Representative:
The people who run the organization referred to as Commercial Alert found at http://www.commercialalert.org/ are conducting a major campaign to make product placement advertising in television shows so blatant that it will make it obsolete. I urge you to NOT support the Parents’ Bill of Rights. First off let me mention that I am not an advertiser nor do I particularly support advertising in any form. I am an independent filmmaker and I understand the business needs behind product placement that make it such a valuable tool. Most programming on today’s free television would be impossible if product placement were not there. Entertainers simply would not have enough money to create the shows in the first place if not for product placement. If these wining ninnies at Commercial Alert don’t want to watch commercials, there are other entertainment choices available to them like radio, books, games, or completely consumer supported television like HBO (there’s a reason it costs so much). But no, these people want countless millions of hours of free entertainment, but they don’t want the advertising that supports it. The free market is driven by people making choices of what they want to support and what they don’t want to, not government legislation on every little thing. If they don’t like TV the way it is, they don’t have to watch it. Please don’t subject the rest of us to their draconian legislation just because they don’t have the common sense to recognize that not everything they see is as it actually is. Television product placement and advertising has roots as deep as “Leave it to Beaver’ and ‘The Honeymooners.’
The film industry nationwide has been suffering through the worst period in its history right now because of Canada, and supporting this bill would cripple this industry even more than Canada ever could.
Raising children with strong values and good character is the most important task of a society. It is the primary responsibility of families. But parents today are overwhelmed. There is so much being pushed on people from every angle that recognizing paid placement is next to impossible. Just today on my way to work I noticed that there were highway signs indicating where to eat at the next exit. Since this was not a comprehensive list, one has to assume that MacDonald’s paid to have their logo placed prominently on the roadside, however there was no indication this was a paid advertisement. This organization had an interview on NPR, which is how I found out about it, but there was no indication that in addition to the news service being provided, it also functioned as an advertisement notifying people of the existence of this organization. Advertising is as inherent in our culture as football. If there were no advertising, people wouldn’t be aware a product exists and would not have the opportunity to make the decision as to if they want to support that product, therefore supporting the company, therefore supporting working class families, and therefore supporting the economy. Commercial Alert wants to do no less than to disrupt the free market.
This commercial culture has not inundated itself into children's lives. Most children’s programming does not contain significant embedded advertisements; that is overwhelmingly targeted towards adults. The most egregious advertising by children’s television is to have huge ancillary markets for items related to the show like lunchboxes, backpacks, snacks, etc. The shows themselves do not utilize product placement and subtle advertising hardly at all.
Commercial Alert will try to claim that there are consequences to the commercial assault on American children, and that kids today are suffering from an epidemic of marketing-related diseases. Rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes are soaring. Eating disorders are the third leading chronic illness among teenage girls, who have become obsessed with body image. Alcohol is a factor in four of the main causes of death among young people aged 10 to 24. Millions will eventually die from the smoking habit promoted to them as youth. These are direct quotes from the pre-programmed tripe listed on their website they encourage people to send to you, but most of these factors can be traced back to poor parenting and the tendency to overwork as much as advertising. You and I were raised with the same advertising mentality as is found now, there was plenty of junk food advertising and significantly more cigarette and alcohol advertising. These arguments are biased and have no basis, and there is no direct link to product placement and purchasing habits.
Other effects are less easily quantified, such as the tension and strife within families and the nagging sense of lack that afflicts kids who don't have money to buy the things advertised. But this has always been the case. Children have always wanted things, and they learn quickly which buttons to push to get their way. I think the people running this organization just haven’t learned how to say no to their children and don’t do anything when their spoiled brats throw tantrums. Then they wonder why they have problems with behavior.
I urge you to NOT join with other concerned legislators in this effort by NOT supporting the Parents’ Bill of Rights because parents already have the Right to Choose: not to watch.
(Your Name)
(Your Address)
(Your Phone Number)
(Your Email)
that is trying to destroy TV as we know it. They are introducing legislation to make it so that networks have to make a pop-up on shows that use product placement notifying the viewer that this shot of X (Coke, Pringles, etc) is a paid product placement and an advertisement. Now I don’t know about you, but I have pop-ups on the web. Do we really need them on TV also? What this is going to do is make product placement obsolete. This is a MAJOR avenue for fundraising and is frivolous draconian legislation that harkens to communism. I would encourage everyone on this board to get everyone they know to go to the site. There is a pre-programmed, skewed, inaccurate, and misleading form where all you have to do is fill in your name, address, etc, and it will be sent to your government representatives. I encourage you to replace this tripe with the modified version below. (please change it as you see fit, and please include your own contact info because they won’t accept it if they don’t know your name, address, and phone number) Then go to http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm, find your senators, and send it to them directly. Then go to http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.html, find your representative and send it to him/her directly also. DON’T LET THESE PEOPLE DESTROY OUR INDUSTRY. :x Dear Senator/Representative:
The people who run the organization referred to as Commercial Alert found at http://www.commercialalert.org/ are conducting a major campaign to make product placement advertising in television shows so blatant that it will make it obsolete. I urge you to NOT support the Parents’ Bill of Rights. First off let me mention that I am not an advertiser nor do I particularly support advertising in any form. I am an independent filmmaker and I understand the business needs behind product placement that make it such a valuable tool. Most programming on today’s free television would be impossible if product placement were not there. Entertainers simply would not have enough money to create the shows in the first place if not for product placement. If these wining ninnies at Commercial Alert don’t want to watch commercials, there are other entertainment choices available to them like radio, books, games, or completely consumer supported television like HBO (there’s a reason it costs so much). But no, these people want countless millions of hours of free entertainment, but they don’t want the advertising that supports it. The free market is driven by people making choices of what they want to support and what they don’t want to, not government legislation on every little thing. If they don’t like TV the way it is, they don’t have to watch it. Please don’t subject the rest of us to their draconian legislation just because they don’t have the common sense to recognize that not everything they see is as it actually is. Television product placement and advertising has roots as deep as “Leave it to Beaver’ and ‘The Honeymooners.’
The film industry nationwide has been suffering through the worst period in its history right now because of Canada, and supporting this bill would cripple this industry even more than Canada ever could.
Raising children with strong values and good character is the most important task of a society. It is the primary responsibility of families. But parents today are overwhelmed. There is so much being pushed on people from every angle that recognizing paid placement is next to impossible. Just today on my way to work I noticed that there were highway signs indicating where to eat at the next exit. Since this was not a comprehensive list, one has to assume that MacDonald’s paid to have their logo placed prominently on the roadside, however there was no indication this was a paid advertisement. This organization had an interview on NPR, which is how I found out about it, but there was no indication that in addition to the news service being provided, it also functioned as an advertisement notifying people of the existence of this organization. Advertising is as inherent in our culture as football. If there were no advertising, people wouldn’t be aware a product exists and would not have the opportunity to make the decision as to if they want to support that product, therefore supporting the company, therefore supporting working class families, and therefore supporting the economy. Commercial Alert wants to do no less than to disrupt the free market.
This commercial culture has not inundated itself into children's lives. Most children’s programming does not contain significant embedded advertisements; that is overwhelmingly targeted towards adults. The most egregious advertising by children’s television is to have huge ancillary markets for items related to the show like lunchboxes, backpacks, snacks, etc. The shows themselves do not utilize product placement and subtle advertising hardly at all.
Commercial Alert will try to claim that there are consequences to the commercial assault on American children, and that kids today are suffering from an epidemic of marketing-related diseases. Rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes are soaring. Eating disorders are the third leading chronic illness among teenage girls, who have become obsessed with body image. Alcohol is a factor in four of the main causes of death among young people aged 10 to 24. Millions will eventually die from the smoking habit promoted to them as youth. These are direct quotes from the pre-programmed tripe listed on their website they encourage people to send to you, but most of these factors can be traced back to poor parenting and the tendency to overwork as much as advertising. You and I were raised with the same advertising mentality as is found now, there was plenty of junk food advertising and significantly more cigarette and alcohol advertising. These arguments are biased and have no basis, and there is no direct link to product placement and purchasing habits.
Other effects are less easily quantified, such as the tension and strife within families and the nagging sense of lack that afflicts kids who don't have money to buy the things advertised. But this has always been the case. Children have always wanted things, and they learn quickly which buttons to push to get their way. I think the people running this organization just haven’t learned how to say no to their children and don’t do anything when their spoiled brats throw tantrums. Then they wonder why they have problems with behavior.
I urge you to NOT join with other concerned legislators in this effort by NOT supporting the Parents’ Bill of Rights because parents already have the Right to Choose: not to watch.
(Your Name)
(Your Address)
(Your Phone Number)
(Your Email)
