You are now entering Ad Space, a realm of commercials, brought before us so we might examine how they work, and discuss why we both love and hate them so. So it is written …
The Product:
Petitions against allowing cable TV to exist
The Promotions:
The Pitch:
Trust us, your grandkids will be all about this cord-cutting thing.
There are few things as amusing as old-timey moral panic over things that are now commonplace. These ads aren’t quite up there with the 19th Century folks who believed eating bananas was too inherently erotic to be allowed in civilized society, but I still got a good laugh at just how hard they went in attacking that new-fangled menace cable television.
Aside from personifying cable TV as a burglar robbing your home or a monster perched atop your television set, there’s also their efforts at disinformation. They try very hard to imply that, unless the government stops pay TV from becoming a thing, free broadcast TV will cease to exist. They can’t say that outright, because it’s patently not true. But they sure as hell imply it.
That’s what makes these ads something special. They don’t just try to convince you that cable TV isn’t worth the cost, which is something each individual must decide for themselves. No, they want you to believe that cable TV’s existence is a threat to the free TV you so enjoy. It’s not enough to decline to get cable yourself – you must join a grassroots movement to prevent anyone from having access to it. All must do their part to protect our sacred free(TV)dom.
The fact that these ads were shown by movie theaters (hence the mentions of lobbies and concession stands), who personally stood to lose millions if viewers became able to watch full, uncut movies on cable – I’m sure that in no way informed the motives behind this call to action.