[ExI] [wta-talk] LA Times: Unlimited space for untold sorrow

[PJ Manney]

On Feb 6, 2008 6:43 AM, Natasha Vita-More <natasha at natasha.cc> wrote:
> True, but from another perspective, I see the opposite.  My father was an
> advertising executive in Manhattan.  As a child to adult, I experienced the
> insides of the advertising business.

Really?!  So was mine!  Write me offlist and tell me where he worked.
Where did you live?

> What I see today is that many
> advertisers are focusing on gangster rap, South Central vernacular, and
> Hispanic style.  Advertisers are paying attention to who is buying the most
> high-selling products:  food, Trucks, mags, and cheap Jewry and cloths.  As
> these communities grow in influence and population, the advertisers are
> right there watching.

Yes, if it's US channels like CW, MTV/VH1, BET, Univision or late
night that caters to young people, etc.  That's their market.

But news, especially international or cable news, is very conservative
and skews older, ad-wise.  I watch a fair bit of it -- it's the only
thing I can bear to watch at the gym.  :)  Their primary ads are for
financial services, pharmaceuticals, vehicles, and weightloss
programs/diet foods.  Recently, the military have become big news
advertisers (which is less about target market and more about spinning
the message).

Think about it -- news makes you insecure and depressed.  So what are
they selling you in the breaks?  Financial security, drugs to make you
happy and give you an erection, foods to help you lose weight from all
the crap you ate because you watch tv all day and are depressed and
not having sex -- and a car to get to the mall to buy it all.  And if
it all goes to hell, you can always enlist.

An aside -- because of all the erectile dysfunction ads on television,
my 11 year old son asked me, with great seriousness, if there was an
epidemic!  :)  I have done my best to disabuse him of that notion, and
to make him aware of Big Pharma Ad-created diseases in general, but I
can only imagine what his generation of boys is going to think about
this issue...

PJ