Thursday, March 31, 2011

Too Sexy

I don't want this blog to be a place filled with rants and complaints, but this one seems too relevant not to mention. Am I the only parent out there who is alarmed by the number of racy/suggestive/inappropriate commercials on television? My son might be too young for TV (although he does enjoy watching a good basketball game) but I'm already looking ahead to a few years from now.


Why does Carl's Jr. find it necessary to use a beauty queen in a bikini to sell a turkey burger? Why does Jack in the Box use a character that says "call the doctor, it's been more than four hours"? Why does Twix try to sell a candy bar by featuring a man cheating on his wife, and eating Twix to avoid being caught?


These are products that don't have anything to do with sex appeal, yet companies are sending the message that they do. It's like saying "if you want a girlfriend who looks like this, you'll buy our burger" or "if you want a beautiful wife, and you want to get away with cheating on her, you'll buy this candy bar". I already think kids are concerned with beauty and sexiness at too young an age; with these types of messages on TV, how could they not be?


Sure, we should closely monitor the programs that our children watch. But I've seen these commercials during "family friendly" shows, like Wipeout and American Idol. I don't think a family should have to watch women strutting in lingerie during a commercial break for a singing competition show. We should feel comfortable sitting down together to watch TV, without a trigger finger ready on the remote.


 Sometimes I see an advertisement that makes me want to call and cancel our cable subscription. I'm sure I could live without Jeopardy! and Chopped. On the other hand, I wonder if ads like these are inevitable, and if  it wouldn't be better to do less censoring and more explaining. Thinking about how to handle this can be a little overwhelming, which is why I'm glad we've got a couple of years before we have to make a decision.

3 comments:

  1. I totally agree! Some of the outfits they target towards young girls makes me cringe also..

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  2. I agree. It just teaches them to be concerned about their body, and to compare their looks to other girls, which never turns out well.

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  3. Good post! I find it appalling that there are birth control ads on the side of YouTube! And that's on the side of pages with clean videos! How many kids watch Youtube videos? And on their front page, they always have great big ads for TV shows that are promoting fornication...

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