They've done it again...first it was Paris Hilton washing a car and eating a burger, and now it is actually two different ads: a VERY young teacher in a room full of teenage males striking stripper poses on a classroom desk while her students sing about her smaller-than-average backside, and another woman in a man's white button-up shirt rolling around on the floor eating a burger and listing off the "things" she wants "you" to "do" to her, ie. kiss, touch...and she stops short of skipping straight down the list to "number 1."
We know who these ads appeal to. And in this case, it extends even further to the Van Halen "Hot for Teacher" generation. HOWEVER...we find, once again, that the world around us cannot seem to tell the difference -- or, worse yet, refuses to admit to a difference -- between that which is appropriate for the viewing public and inappropriate for same. Carl's wants the business of young males. They've got it. They had it back when their ads displayed massive and inexpensive sandwiches dripping with condiments to "really fill up a man," if you will. "If it doesn't get all over the place, it doesn't belong in your face." A little disgusting, but cute, and excellent for the market they wanted. Doesn't Carl's Jr worry now, though, that they're hurting themselves by making women into chattel? Religious individuals everywhere boycotted them during the Paris ad campaign, and now those same individuals, PLUS teachers everywhere, PLUS many women will boycott them, too! But they have made their decision. They have shot their commercials, and paid for those commercials to be circulated. They didn't bother to consider (or don't want to consider) the appropriateness of the ads...they just know that "flat buns" sell flat buns.
The stations that play these commercials have taken that money, used it to pay their execs and their cameramen and their mailroom attendants, what-have-you, and have slapped those ads up on the screen for their viewership to do what they have been paid to do: give the ads airtime. Not once did those stations bother to determine whether or not it would be appropriate to air the ads; instead, they let the public decide whether or not to watch the ads, passing the buck to us. I appreciate that they want to let us decide...and I do decide, where particular shows and programs are concerned. I am very selective in the television I watch, and in the television I permit my children to watch. I cannot, however, be selective about the ADS they watch. I cannot keep my television from playing an inappropriate ad during a family program unless I leap up or grab the remote and switch off the television...often by which time the damage is done.
I can, however, protest the ads to my local television stations. And I have. I can purchase a DVR or a Tivo for the few programs I want to see, record them, and then play them for my children at a later time, fast-forwarding through commercials. I can also abandon television watching altogether and stick to movies...and BOOKS.
I have options. The first option I listed, however, is always the most important: make a statement. Again, STAND UP for yourself. The station won't do anything about their ads unless someone says something, and even then, it often takes more than one...but imagine that I am the one, and you are number two. Or number twenty-two. Or maybe just the one that makes the difference.
Now the solution: It is not wrong to decide that something is inappropriate for you and yours, and it is not wrong to state that you find something to be inappropriate. There are, of course, circumstances where your opinion is not required, is not helpful, or is none of your business, but at the times when it is required or helpful and is your business (ie. involves you directly), feel free to comment. In fact, feel it a necessity to comment.
Your business should be just as important to Carl's Jr. as Joe Schmoe Frat Boy, because they really do have a great Jr. Western Bacon Cheeseburger...which cheeseburger I will not be enjoying until a) these ads are off the air, and b) my diet is completed, just a few pounds from now. So there, Carl's...and ABC, NBC, CBS, what-have-you.
Problem solved,
Mommy
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Problem: Pride at Being PC
Though the vast majority of Americans loathe and detest "Political Correctness," a concept that has stuck with us the last 15 years (to my great dismay), we still fear to speak our minds for fear of offending...someone. God forbid we should have any honest opinions...but that's another problem. There are those, you see, who take the opposite tack: rather than fearing that they are not PC, they are terribly proud at just how PC they are.
KBIG 104 is a Los Angeles/Orange County station here in sunny SoCal. They play a variety of music, and as a result, I would stop on their station every once in a while as I flipped through stations on the radio of my car while running errands. And just about that often -- every once in a while -- I would find a song I liked and could be comfortable playing for the listening ears in the back seat. They have a program called Community 104, an online community where you can gather "points" in exchange for prizes or entries into various sweepstakes; points accumulate when you answer questions correctly, submit "code words" they disseminate over the airwaves, or by using "click-thru," whereby you click links on their website and are taken to other websites, receiving an average of 25 points for clicking. (Sweepstakes entries, etc, "cost" anywhere from 200 - 20,000 points, depending.) As a courtesy to those who pay to have their sites linked, and who thereby allot me points, I generally invest a minute or two examining the product or service offered by the organization to whose webpage I've been brought.
Now comes the email exchange:
Recently I logged on and did the “click-throughs”, which I always take the time to look at as a courtesy to the organization offering click-through points; I was mortified to come across a photo as soon as I clicked on one item that was a group of young gay men dancing together in their underclothing. I do not belong to your community for that sort of thing. Please remove me and my account from your system immediately and know that I will no longer be listening to KBIG 104, no matter what you play.
Cordially,
Jessica
Response:
Jessica,
We appreciate you listening, for being a Community 104 member, and for taking the time to look at our client's websites when "clicking thru" for extra credit.
We regret that you found the Lucky Sundays website offensive. 104.3 KBIG is proud to embrace all people and we regret that this alternative lifestyles page made you want to stop participating in our rewards program. We are very active with many organizations, charities, and communities in the Southern California area. We try to use the radio station to reach out to as many people as possible. We just got done with a two-day TUNATHON raising money for Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, and we just supported AIDS Project LA through Summer Party 2007. We look forward to once again dedicating October to Breast Cancer Awareness.
If you no longer want to be a member, please hit the unsubscribe button next time you receive our Newsletter. The unsubscribe link is at the bottom of the image. If you click on that you will no longer receive any information from us.
All the best,
104.3 KBIG Promotions
818/566-4777
My response:
I appreciate all the service you give the community, but I belong to your online community not because you “are proud to embrace all people,” but because you are a station I listen to. I don’t care if you support a variety of lifestyles – more power to you – but I am offended by the idea of two indecently dressed young men prominently displayed on my computer screen because I clicked a click-through, not realizing what “Lucky Sundays” would be about. I have a Disneyland annual pass and attend regularly with my family; homosexuals do not bother me. I would be equally as offended if you had a click-through that brought me to a website that would grace my computer with a scantily clad woman dancing with an equally scantily clad man. If I want to donate to CHLA, AIDS, or Breast Cancer, I can do so directly; I don’t need to find half-naked men dancing in close quarters to feel close to my community. I wish your community were different. It doesn’t have to be unaccepting…just APPROPRIATE.
Thank you for humoring my point of view, and I will certainly unsubscribe at my next opportunity.
Jessica
So, there it is, ladies and gents; what they said to me was basically, "You're intolerant. We're PC, and proud. So if you want out of our 'community,' unsubscribe yourself. We ain't doin' nothing." By the way, they gave no response.
The problem at first was that KBIG apparently does not know the difference between appropriate and inappropriate material. The problem rapidly became a matter of pride; this woman is a biggot, and we love all people...especially the ones we can tell that she hates. But the problem for me was STILL that they did understand how innappropriate their link was, and THEN that they thought themselves better than their audience because of all they do for all the people whose lifestyles they warmly accept.
Unfortunately, many people, organizations, groups, and politicos refuse to label anything as black or white; everything is gray. But again, this is a problem for another blogline. The problem of which I currently speak is when those people take pride in their unwillingness to judge righteously. And isn't that the bottom line?
Political Correctness, in most instances, is just a matter of people being unwilling to take a stand...to exercise their God-given power to judge righteously for themselves what is right and what is wrong, what is acceptable and what is unacceptable, whether out of fear or out of stupidity. The most obscene part of all that, to me, is when those people take it a step further and tell me how evil or intolerant I am for deciding for myself that something is inappropriate for me and my family...when those people place themselves above me, touting their willingness to "embrace" that in which I have chosen not to have part.
Solution: When this occurs, STAND UP FOR YOURSELF. We have the right to decide what is or is not appropriate for us, and if something is being thrust upon us, we have not only the right but the DUTY to push back! (We don't have to slap, kick, bite, and scream, but refusal to take part is just as effective!) If my children are watching a children's television show and on comes Paris Hilton washing a car with a Carl's Jr. hamburger, you can bet I'm going to contact the station playing the ad! If someone calls me intolerant for loving individual homosexuals as my brothers and sisters but not embracing their homosexuality, you can also bet I'm going to explain that I can love the person but hate the behavior! And if someone places themselves above me for embracing things I find inappropriate, I certainly plan on holding my ground!
HOLD YOUR GROUND. Be who you are, believe as you believe, and when challenged, you may listen and love, but remember who and what you are: an individual with individual ideas whose ideas should be just as respected as the people "embraced" for their ideas. Demand the respect they give "other lifestyles", for yours is a lifestyle, too, and their refusal to designate black and white does not make them better people...only more foolish.
This will always be a problem; being PC, it seems, will forever be PC. The best way to "solve" the problem is to deal with it on a case by case scenario, and to do that, we must stand up for ourselves. So...Stand up.
Problem Solved,
Mommy
KBIG 104 is a Los Angeles/Orange County station here in sunny SoCal. They play a variety of music, and as a result, I would stop on their station every once in a while as I flipped through stations on the radio of my car while running errands. And just about that often -- every once in a while -- I would find a song I liked and could be comfortable playing for the listening ears in the back seat. They have a program called Community 104, an online community where you can gather "points" in exchange for prizes or entries into various sweepstakes; points accumulate when you answer questions correctly, submit "code words" they disseminate over the airwaves, or by using "click-thru," whereby you click links on their website and are taken to other websites, receiving an average of 25 points for clicking. (Sweepstakes entries, etc, "cost" anywhere from 200 - 20,000 points, depending.) As a courtesy to those who pay to have their sites linked, and who thereby allot me points, I generally invest a minute or two examining the product or service offered by the organization to whose webpage I've been brought.
Now comes the email exchange:
Recently I logged on and did the “click-throughs”, which I always take the time to look at as a courtesy to the organization offering click-through points; I was mortified to come across a photo as soon as I clicked on one item that was a group of young gay men dancing together in their underclothing. I do not belong to your community for that sort of thing. Please remove me and my account from your system immediately and know that I will no longer be listening to KBIG 104, no matter what you play.
Cordially,
Jessica
Response:
Jessica,
We appreciate you listening, for being a Community 104 member, and for taking the time to look at our client's websites when "clicking thru" for extra credit.
We regret that you found the Lucky Sundays website offensive. 104.3 KBIG is proud to embrace all people and we regret that this alternative lifestyles page made you want to stop participating in our rewards program. We are very active with many organizations, charities, and communities in the Southern California area. We try to use the radio station to reach out to as many people as possible. We just got done with a two-day TUNATHON raising money for Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, and we just supported AIDS Project LA through Summer Party 2007. We look forward to once again dedicating October to Breast Cancer Awareness.
If you no longer want to be a member, please hit the unsubscribe button next time you receive our Newsletter. The unsubscribe link is at the bottom of the image. If you click on that you will no longer receive any information from us.
All the best,
104.3 KBIG Promotions
818/566-4777
My response:
I appreciate all the service you give the community, but I belong to your online community not because you “are proud to embrace all people,” but because you are a station I listen to. I don’t care if you support a variety of lifestyles – more power to you – but I am offended by the idea of two indecently dressed young men prominently displayed on my computer screen because I clicked a click-through, not realizing what “Lucky Sundays” would be about. I have a Disneyland annual pass and attend regularly with my family; homosexuals do not bother me. I would be equally as offended if you had a click-through that brought me to a website that would grace my computer with a scantily clad woman dancing with an equally scantily clad man. If I want to donate to CHLA, AIDS, or Breast Cancer, I can do so directly; I don’t need to find half-naked men dancing in close quarters to feel close to my community. I wish your community were different. It doesn’t have to be unaccepting…just APPROPRIATE.
Thank you for humoring my point of view, and I will certainly unsubscribe at my next opportunity.
Jessica
So, there it is, ladies and gents; what they said to me was basically, "You're intolerant. We're PC, and proud. So if you want out of our 'community,' unsubscribe yourself. We ain't doin' nothing." By the way, they gave no response.
The problem at first was that KBIG apparently does not know the difference between appropriate and inappropriate material. The problem rapidly became a matter of pride; this woman is a biggot, and we love all people...especially the ones we can tell that she hates. But the problem for me was STILL that they did understand how innappropriate their link was, and THEN that they thought themselves better than their audience because of all they do for all the people whose lifestyles they warmly accept.
Unfortunately, many people, organizations, groups, and politicos refuse to label anything as black or white; everything is gray. But again, this is a problem for another blogline. The problem of which I currently speak is when those people take pride in their unwillingness to judge righteously. And isn't that the bottom line?
Political Correctness, in most instances, is just a matter of people being unwilling to take a stand...to exercise their God-given power to judge righteously for themselves what is right and what is wrong, what is acceptable and what is unacceptable, whether out of fear or out of stupidity. The most obscene part of all that, to me, is when those people take it a step further and tell me how evil or intolerant I am for deciding for myself that something is inappropriate for me and my family...when those people place themselves above me, touting their willingness to "embrace" that in which I have chosen not to have part.
Solution: When this occurs, STAND UP FOR YOURSELF. We have the right to decide what is or is not appropriate for us, and if something is being thrust upon us, we have not only the right but the DUTY to push back! (We don't have to slap, kick, bite, and scream, but refusal to take part is just as effective!) If my children are watching a children's television show and on comes Paris Hilton washing a car with a Carl's Jr. hamburger, you can bet I'm going to contact the station playing the ad! If someone calls me intolerant for loving individual homosexuals as my brothers and sisters but not embracing their homosexuality, you can also bet I'm going to explain that I can love the person but hate the behavior! And if someone places themselves above me for embracing things I find inappropriate, I certainly plan on holding my ground!
HOLD YOUR GROUND. Be who you are, believe as you believe, and when challenged, you may listen and love, but remember who and what you are: an individual with individual ideas whose ideas should be just as respected as the people "embraced" for their ideas. Demand the respect they give "other lifestyles", for yours is a lifestyle, too, and their refusal to designate black and white does not make them better people...only more foolish.
This will always be a problem; being PC, it seems, will forever be PC. The best way to "solve" the problem is to deal with it on a case by case scenario, and to do that, we must stand up for ourselves. So...Stand up.
Problem Solved,
Mommy
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