The Parents Television Council in the News
Who is to blame for the poor state of television? The networks and media conglomerates share some of the blame in their race to produce racier fare every week, ignoring data showing that families want entertainment, too.
Parents are not blameless. Many use TV as a babysitter and most are not educated about what their children are watching. For those parents who are, they often don't speak up when they are bothered by what they see.
The actors are not blameless for agreeing to portray the roles they are given, but the ultimate responsibility falls with the advertisers. They pay for the programs. Without their money, bad shows would disappear.
The worst part is that many advertisers don't even know what they are funding. One would assume that since TV advertising is such an important part of doing business that companies would always know exactly what they are sponsoring. After all, it is their money and their ad. In general, this is why there are no beer commercials during Saturday morning cartoons or toy ads during "Desperate Housewives."
There are frequent exceptions to this, however, and many companies have no idea what they are supporting. Usually when a block of ad spots is purchased, the ads are aired at the station's discretion and when certain types of viewers that the advertiser wants to target are expected to be in the audience. This doesn't let advertisers off the hook, however. It is their money and they should know each and every time their advertisements are aired.
GEICO, for instance, was recently embarrassed to find out, after denying its sponsorship of the extremely violent show "The Shield," that it was in fact a sponsor. GEICO apologized.
Some companies seek out sleaze to which to attach their name. Sony bought the sole advertising rights to the season premiere of "Nip/Tuck," the morally irresponsible FX show about two plastic surgeons in Miami. That first episode contained a graphic portrayal of a breast implant surgery gone wrong, a flashback of a rape by a murderer who was not caught, and later the same character having sex with two women at the same time, along with a slew of uncensored profanities.
Does Sony want to be known as the company that supports threesomes and foul language? It seems it does.
Recently the Parents Television Council released a list of the Top Ten Best and Worst Advertisers for the past TV season. They found that while certain companies consistently sponsor family-friendly television, others did not. Those who show up on the worst list owe parents an explanation. For example, Yum! Brands, which owns such fast-food chains as KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, sponsored filth-laden shows like "The OC" and "The Shield."
At the other end of the spectrum, Clorox keeps it clean. The company's ads ran during family shows like "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and "Joan of Arcadia."
If parents want more choices for family viewing, they need to let the advertisers know that they are paying attention. It is time for the companies that bring children the steady stream of sex, violence and profanity under the pretense of entertainment to be held accountable for their actions.