Commercials Reflect the Values of Our Businesses
I am astounded at the point at which we have arrived at in television, movies, radio. The “conversation” of our times, including commercials, has become one “bleeping” example of what is wrong with society. As I write this post, a commercial has just ended. I have no idea what the commercial was selling. I do know what it seems to be pushing – “bleeping” behaviors. This post concerns the degradation of standards of speaking and marketing. What does a commercial accomplish, if it catches my attention and yet fails to present the product or business positively?
Bleeping Effective
A television commercial comes on that has a “bleeping” message in promoting its products. So what if they bleeped the actual inappropriate language. Because the “bleeping” does not conceal the spoken word or the implication of the spoken word. This is like the episode of a popular television show that wrote a script that required a five-year-old to use the f-word. (I am not talking “fun” or “fudge”). More and more, commercials and television promos use profantiy, violence, and other “easy gimmicks” to catch attention. Too often a bleeping commercial is followed by a promo that uses violence as the literal punch line for an upcoming show.
The Language of Benefits, Not Degradation
What does it say about our times that movies, television shows, comedy routines, interviews and yes now commercials find the use of foul language as “in,” trendy, sophisticated, and acceptable? For me, it says we have a growing and concerning trend. Whatever the trend, it is one that is desensitizing people to what is truly offensive behavior. It demonstrates that people are not maturing in their outlook and are stuck in the high school (or earlier) locker-room antics. People are not growing up, but falling down on setting and enforcing standards of acceptable public discourse.
What is The Goal?
I have no doubt that the opinion I am expressing will be celebrated and attacked. However, I feel the need to speak out. We are teaching the next generation that violence, foul language, and crime is acceptable. We set up drug dealers, violent criminals, and bumbling criminals as role models to the point that the population dresses more like prisoners each day. The cultural slide into “not judging” and not “wanting to interfere” or “force views” has resulted in an abdication of standards and values. Teaching values, valuing life, holding people accountable for actions, and having goals to improve our lives through hard work and contributions to society is becoming a lost art.
Copyright ©2016 Lea A. Strickland, F.O.C.U.S. Resource, Inc.