Even more
depressing than watching the news on TV is watching the ads that go with it.
Hawkers of
hemorrhoid remedies, ED cures, adult diapers, affordable funeral homes, drugs
to slow memory loss, false teeth cleaners and home nursing services march
through my living room hawking their wares and a vision of present or future
misery. All of which they promise their
remedies will help to make more bearable—or at least less expensive when it
comes to the funeral home.
Hale and
hearty as most of my ancestors have been, I'm less likely than most of my friends to need a majority of these services,
but they still cast a sad shadow over my evening, as I think of friends less
genetically blessed and the sad fate awaiting them and maybe even me to be totally honest.
It also
makes me wonder who is watching, or who the networks think is watching ,the
nightly news.
Have the
networks simply determined that the demographic watching the news is a sub group of people
over a certain age which consists of those who are deaf, incontinent, lack memory, have no
money and are planning their imminent departure from this vale of tears. Although I'm no expert, with ads like these I can't believe their
target demographic is any younger than 50 ( even 100 might be too young).
If I'm
right, what an insult. Whatever the age range they're targeting, the
networks' prejudices are certainly
showing. With an aunt who at 90 quizzed
me about the developmental stages my young son was going through, I know what
dangerous garbage age stereotyping is.
Even more scary is what this scenario, if the age assumptions are true,
says about the US TV news audience as a whole.
Young people and those in early middle age aren't watching. And given the current state of the newspaper industry, they're probably not reading the news either. And that is even scarier than both the ads and the news. Because informed citizens are essential for a healthy democracy. So I can only hope the networks and advertisers are wrong.
