How to burn your audience

Perhaps I’m naive, or was brought up differently, but where has morality in the world of television gone? I mean I’m not stupid! We’ve been pushing the boundaries for a long time now but when did it become okay to use (or abuse more accurately) a horrific situation in the name of winning popularity?

If you don’t know what I’m referring to, I’m talking about the 60 second commercial Channel Nine / WIN Television ran in the midst of the reporting of the devastating fires in Victoria. To say it was a commercial is a farce! It was a piece of self promotion about how great they were at delivering news (specifically tragedy) and how good their coverage was. All the while showing footage of burning homes and women crying. These were somebody’s homes, somebody’s families. It’s entirely possible that the people in the footage had lost loved ones.

Does anyone else have a problem with this? Or am I alone on this one?

I just can’t bring myself to condone such an insensitive act. A situation like the one we all faced in Victoria demands sensitivity and humility. If I was the guy in charge of traffic at Channel Nine ( traffic is a position in a television station and their responsibility is to order and load all the TV Commercials for each break), I would have been into the station the minute the news broke, ensuring that nothing insensitive was about to air.

In fact, when we discussed this internally, one of the guys even went so far as to suggest that a funeral directors advert would have been best pulled under the circumstances.

Advertisers are often blamed for being insensitive and indeed, at times, immoral. I think it’s time we all took a look at these types of situations and made a moral stand on what’s really right and wrong.

The sad reality is that tragedy makes good news and, even worse for me, is that Nine had the highest ratings for their coverage on the Saturday night with over 844,000 viewers in Melbourne alone.

I’d love to see people comment on this subject and I really encourage you to post your thoughts and feelings below. It’s your chance to have a say.

Never forget, the power is literally in your hand. If you feel strongly enough, do as I do and use your remote to switch to something else!