Sharon Slater, President of Family Watch International, gives a few examples of television commercials that she's seen while watching the Olympics. They are commercials for various products: a vehicle, fast food, a bank card, another TV program. But what they have in common is what prompted Sharon to conclude:These commercials are disturbing on two levels. They graphically illustrate how desensitized U.S. society has become to what a generation ago would have been completely unacceptable. But they are also an example of one of the mechanisms of desensitization which will facilitate the deterioration of societal values. Advertisers are conditioning us and our children to laugh at promiscuity and infidelity and to think of them as common occurrences that are no big deal.
These commercials cause me to wonder how low we can go. Parents, you may need to screen commercials and not just TV shows in order to protect your children from both the subliminal and the blatant messages that are constantly barraging them.
Again, you can read the whole column here.
Sharon's column reminded me of an anecdote Claire tells about being in the John Cavanaugh O'Keefe home many years ago. Claire was in the D.C. area to participate in a pro-life press conference and was watching over the O'Keefe kids while their parents were running errands in preparation for the conference. The parents had told Claire the kids could watch an hour of television but only particular programs.
Fine. Claire was reading, the kids were watching TV, and things were pretty peaceful when the eldest boy startled Claire by suddenly jumping up and dashing across the room to the TV set. When he got there, he turned the sound down and dramatically stood spread-eagle in front of the screen, effectively blocking the picture from the rest of the kids.
Claire's wonderment must have shown on her face as the boy noticed her, smiled and calmly said, "My Mom and Dad don't want us to watch commercials."
Television, by its very nature, has made us spectators rather than actors involved in the dramas of real life. And through commercials (the reason TV exists), we are refashioned further into consuming spectators. The O'Keefe's understood this and therefore, were rightly concerned about limiting this "double-negative" of TV's influence.
Sharon Slater would wholeheartedly agree.
