Celebrity.
Harry Truman once remarked that he was amazed at the celebrity accorded the office of the president. He was right. People will wait in the blazing sun on a summer day - or in the rain or snow on a bone-chilling winter day, just to see the president's limosine whiz by.
One can almost understand that... the president is an enormously powerful man, selected for his job by tens of millions of American voters. What I cannot understand is the incredible devotion the American public shows to some shallow people. Like Paris Hilton. Google just announced that Paris Hilton is the most frequently posted name in a Google search! What? More people want information about Paris Hilton than any other person in the world? Talk about shallow? Why in the world are people so interested in Miss Hilton?
It doesn't stop there. The recent wall to wall coverage given what was called the "TomKat" wedding... Tom Cruise and some gal named Katie, I think. Do people really care about these people?
America is awash with physically attractive people who have learned how to stand in front of a camera (TV or movie camera) or on a stage, and pretend they are someone else. That is a wonderful talent, and for that I salute them. But it isn't enough that they are paid obscene amounts for practicing their craft. The public worships these people. Even to the point where they (the public) hangs on every word as the actors/actresses speak on some subject like America's foreign policy... about which they seem to know nothing.
I appreciated Arnold Schwartzenegger some years ago, after he had starred in a movie called "Kindergarten Cop". Someone started questioning him about the care and training of pre-school children. To his great credit, Arnold quickly informed them that he was an actor reading his lines for a movie and was not an expert on kindergartners.
Celebrity does not stop with big name movie stars. People go absolutely ga-ga over anyone on radio or TV. And, they will go to any end to get their own face flashed on TV, if for only a second. The other morning when my wife was flipping through the morning "news" programs on TV , I saw these huge crowds gathered on the streets outside the studio, waving like a bunch of idiots when the cameras panned across the crowd! One can imagine that they had previously notified all the folks back home that they were going to get up early, leave their comfy hotel room, and brave the elements to stand outside the studio for two hours during the morning show.... "please watch... I'll be waving a sign that says 'Hi, Mom & Dad'."
No wonder our critics abroad think we are all nuts.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Political TV Advertising - Another Perspective
That moaning sound you hear is the collective groan of TV viewers who realize that the race for the November, 2008 election has already started. Negative TV ads work and we will see more than ever before.
But there is another group doing some groaning, and for a bit more important reason. Let me explain. To the average viewer, TV commercials may be entertaining, informative, irritating, or (too often) just plain boring.
But remember, apart from PBS, (TV's beggars), our entire TV industry is supported by advertising. All those highly paid actors, the famous news anchors, the wonderful coverage of sports and news events, and much more, are paid with advertising dollars. That gives you an idea of how important TV advertising is to some people.
Many, many businesses cannot survive without their TV advertising campaigns. And, even though a business may survive, individual salesman and other employees with incomes tied to production, may not.
To a viewer, it seems there is a never ending stream of TV commercials. Actually there is an end... a station can schedule only so many commercials, then they are out of time. There is a finite number of commercials which can be scheduled. When they have all been purchased, it is no longer possible to buy TV advertising. Never mind that your very livlihood depends on it.
So, when millions upon millions of dollars in political advertising is thrown into the mix, it puts a serious dent in the inventory of commercial TV time available, forcing many commercial advertisers out. The public hears about the rates charged advertisers for very special programs, like the Super Bowl, and think all TV advertising is very expensive. Not so. We have clients in upstate New York for whom we regularly buy TV commercials for under $40 each. Imagine what happened to the availability of commercial time when Hillary dumped $30 million into her 2006 Senate re-election campaign in New York. Yep, our clients could not buy TV advertising. It hurt them, hurt their salesmen and other workers, and it hurt us.
I am opposed to the idea of campaign finance limits, because that curtails free speech. If you want to spend all of your money promoting a political candidate, you should have the right to do that. I would like to see a law that says a TV station can sell only a certain per cent of their commercial time to political candidates (at whatever rate the political supporters are willing to pay). The rest must be reserved for commercial advertisers, the bread and butter of our economy. Get your political message across if you will. But please do not stop us from making a living.
That moaning sound you hear is the collective groan of TV viewers who realize that the race for the November, 2008 election has already started. Negative TV ads work and we will see more than ever before.
But there is another group doing some groaning, and for a bit more important reason. Let me explain. To the average viewer, TV commercials may be entertaining, informative, irritating, or (too often) just plain boring.
But remember, apart from PBS, (TV's beggars), our entire TV industry is supported by advertising. All those highly paid actors, the famous news anchors, the wonderful coverage of sports and news events, and much more, are paid with advertising dollars. That gives you an idea of how important TV advertising is to some people.
Many, many businesses cannot survive without their TV advertising campaigns. And, even though a business may survive, individual salesman and other employees with incomes tied to production, may not.
To a viewer, it seems there is a never ending stream of TV commercials. Actually there is an end... a station can schedule only so many commercials, then they are out of time. There is a finite number of commercials which can be scheduled. When they have all been purchased, it is no longer possible to buy TV advertising. Never mind that your very livlihood depends on it.
So, when millions upon millions of dollars in political advertising is thrown into the mix, it puts a serious dent in the inventory of commercial TV time available, forcing many commercial advertisers out. The public hears about the rates charged advertisers for very special programs, like the Super Bowl, and think all TV advertising is very expensive. Not so. We have clients in upstate New York for whom we regularly buy TV commercials for under $40 each. Imagine what happened to the availability of commercial time when Hillary dumped $30 million into her 2006 Senate re-election campaign in New York. Yep, our clients could not buy TV advertising. It hurt them, hurt their salesmen and other workers, and it hurt us.
I am opposed to the idea of campaign finance limits, because that curtails free speech. If you want to spend all of your money promoting a political candidate, you should have the right to do that. I would like to see a law that says a TV station can sell only a certain per cent of their commercial time to political candidates (at whatever rate the political supporters are willing to pay). The rest must be reserved for commercial advertisers, the bread and butter of our economy. Get your political message across if you will. But please do not stop us from making a living.
Friday, December 08, 2006
The True Meaning Of Christmas
Every year in December, we hear a lot about the "true" meaning of Christmas. We've all heard it so many times that we instantly know what they are talking about.... that Christmas, as the birthday of Jesus Christ, is really a solemn, sacred event, and we are wrong to observe it as a fun time to hold year-end merchandise sales, exchange gifts and get drunk at office parties.
But, if one really digs into the origin of observing December 25 as "Christmas", you will find it is not quite so simple. A boistrous celebration was staged throughout Europe, near the time of the winter solstice, for centuries. It was often such a wild celebration that, at one time, Christians in England were forbidden to observe the holiday
In the fourth century, the early church, which was more powerful than any government, (even powerful enough to ban the teaching of Galileo's marvelous discoveries) rather arbitrarily chose this period to represent the birth of Christ. In truth, no one knows when Christ was born - or even where he was born, for that matter. The early records from his followers, mention shepherds tending their flocks... grazing is hardly a winter activity.
In the case of Galileo's teaching, there eventualy accumulated such a body of evidence supporting the truth of his discoveries, the church was forced to choose between looking like a bunch of fools for denying him, or to agree that Galileo was right. As the world's early experts of "spin", they then proclaimed that Galileo's discoveries were further proof of God's existence.
Well, things have also changed regarding the meaning of Christmas. (Although the church never backed off its designation as Christ's birthday). This date remains an absolutely wonderful event that brightens and warms the short days and long nights in the cold and dreary month of December, turning it into the most joyous time of the year. How many people have been rescued from winter weather induced depression by some small act of love and caring at Christmas time?
I was a child during the great depression. During most of the 1930s, my father was employed and supported our family of seven on a flat $25. a week. During December my sisters and I were filled with great anticipation of wondrous things to come. The little box of hard candy we were given at our country school. The Christmas tree we decorated with home-made ornaments. The lights that decorated city streets. And, of course, the overwhelming joy we all experienced on Christmas morning when we opened our gifts.
Today, as adults, we experience much of the same joy as we share happiness with our friends and with our grandchildren and other family members. And, indeed, Christmas is celebrated around the world by many who do not consider themselves Christians.
Surely that is the true meaning of Christmas.
And, surely I can wish you a "Merry Christmas" without concern for being politically correct, or a failure to understand the true meaning of what I have said.
Every year in December, we hear a lot about the "true" meaning of Christmas. We've all heard it so many times that we instantly know what they are talking about.... that Christmas, as the birthday of Jesus Christ, is really a solemn, sacred event, and we are wrong to observe it as a fun time to hold year-end merchandise sales, exchange gifts and get drunk at office parties.
But, if one really digs into the origin of observing December 25 as "Christmas", you will find it is not quite so simple. A boistrous celebration was staged throughout Europe, near the time of the winter solstice, for centuries. It was often such a wild celebration that, at one time, Christians in England were forbidden to observe the holiday
In the fourth century, the early church, which was more powerful than any government, (even powerful enough to ban the teaching of Galileo's marvelous discoveries) rather arbitrarily chose this period to represent the birth of Christ. In truth, no one knows when Christ was born - or even where he was born, for that matter. The early records from his followers, mention shepherds tending their flocks... grazing is hardly a winter activity.
In the case of Galileo's teaching, there eventualy accumulated such a body of evidence supporting the truth of his discoveries, the church was forced to choose between looking like a bunch of fools for denying him, or to agree that Galileo was right. As the world's early experts of "spin", they then proclaimed that Galileo's discoveries were further proof of God's existence.
Well, things have also changed regarding the meaning of Christmas. (Although the church never backed off its designation as Christ's birthday). This date remains an absolutely wonderful event that brightens and warms the short days and long nights in the cold and dreary month of December, turning it into the most joyous time of the year. How many people have been rescued from winter weather induced depression by some small act of love and caring at Christmas time?
I was a child during the great depression. During most of the 1930s, my father was employed and supported our family of seven on a flat $25. a week. During December my sisters and I were filled with great anticipation of wondrous things to come. The little box of hard candy we were given at our country school. The Christmas tree we decorated with home-made ornaments. The lights that decorated city streets. And, of course, the overwhelming joy we all experienced on Christmas morning when we opened our gifts.
Today, as adults, we experience much of the same joy as we share happiness with our friends and with our grandchildren and other family members. And, indeed, Christmas is celebrated around the world by many who do not consider themselves Christians.
Surely that is the true meaning of Christmas.
And, surely I can wish you a "Merry Christmas" without concern for being politically correct, or a failure to understand the true meaning of what I have said.
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