Agreed. However... You may recall that Norman Leer got all sorts of accolades in "fighting stereotypes" for "All In The Family," while Carroll O'Conner exited his role in that show forever a racist in the eyes of many viewers. Hollywood had to fashion him into a parallel universe tolerant version of Rod Steiger's racist police chief in order to cleanse the public's palate. They even gave him a black girlfriend while living in Sparta, Mississippi so he could leap tall racists in a single bound. My point is never underestimate the stupidity of the American public. (I was going to say "Never underestimate the power of the media," but given the aforementioned level of stupidity, I don't believe the power has to be that great.) We all have the Propaganda Box right in our homes. Some have several...in their children's bedrooms. It's frightening.
The flip side of showing stereotypes is NOT showing Americans as they really are. Doper kids, discouraged minorities,,promiscuos women, worn down men,( and women ) isolated elders, etc. We're not that bad, though. I happen to like Americans on the whole.
"leap tall racists in a single bound." How do you come up with stuff like that? John, you should write at more length for a blog or website or somewhere.
I was trying to find a tampon commercial I saw on one of those "Funny Video" shows. Two little boys were playing with mom's box of tampons, and she walks in the room and asks them what they're doing. Having been exposed to the ridiculous commercials, they reply "When we use these, we can go hiking and horseback riding and swimming and..." Mom laughs.
I don't remember the specific drug, but I have seen ads for allergy medications that show a woman blissfully lying in a field of spring flowers, the idea being that she can do that as long as she takes the allergy medication. I'm thinking that if I were so allergic to pollen that I had to medicate myself against it, I think I'd avoid the lying in the field of flowers thing, particularly given the string of side effects to the medication.
I sometimes mute the TV when commercials come on. The whole contrived production falls apart without sound. If there were also a way to kill the picture and listen to the background voice rattling off the side effects without the distraction of the production, I imagine that would put an edge on the risk of popping that particular pill. Watching someone fly a kite with a smile on their face with the background narrative of "...may induce death" is tough to cleanly process. Regarding side effects: It's funny how people will trade a new malady for the one they've grown tired of. I've often considered standing up a dating site for people on meds that produce side effects. People who take allergy meds to reduce their sniffles but that gives them headaches can hook up with those taking migraine meds that induce sniffles.
Many commercials are clever, and tend to stick in your mind as they were intended to do. What kills them, however, is their mind-numbing repetition, over-and-over, on many or the same networks, often within minutes of a previous airing. Familiarity breeds contempt...
One commercial showing to black dudes kissing. It's about a drug for HIV protection. A new ad, we just seen last night, showed two ladies kissing and listed how people should be tolerant, accepting and all of that other B.S.. However, I guess if America was more of those things, we wouldn't have the problems we do.......or would we still? This wasn't an ad, but a HGTV show about one man married to two women who wanted their home redone.
HGTV used to have some decent shows. Their descriptions that are posted on guides are meant to deceive. Given up on them.