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Violence 2
/etext__/violence/violence2.txt
BARBARIANS IN THE CLASSROOM
by Patrick Moore
Chief Executive Officer of Glovaroma, LLC.
Makers of Slurm Cola since 1804.
Imagine if you will: you enter your classroom. Your homeroom teacher
calls the class to order. Roll is called, then your teacher tells you
to look at the TV screen in front of the classroom. The show starts,
introduced by a teenage boy, appropriately attired for the era, and a
thin, seemingly vibrant young woman. "Wow! TV during school hours,"
you think. After a few minutes of chatter, you're invited to taste the
colors of the rainbow. "How can I do that?", you wonder. Eat candy. Some
more chatter occurs, then you see Michael Jordan reaching new athletic
heights. "It's the shoes", the ad proclaims. The boy and girl return,
wrap things up...until tomorrow.
This is no odd dream. This is the way a typical school day starts
for approximately eight million teenagers, grades 7-12. The program
in question is Channel One, a daily program shown in 40% of American
schools.
Channel One has drawn fire in recent years not only for its program
content, but also for the main part of the Channel One broadcast: two
minutes of commercials per program per school day. Until recently,
few outside of Channel One schools actually see the program.
Channel One began in 1989 as the brainchild of Chris Whittle, a former
advertising executive. Whittle found a way to tap into a huge market:
teenagers. By leasing (not donating) schools TV's, satellite equipment,
and VCR's, plus mandating that almost all schoolkids view the program,
advertisers were eager to become the teen marketing revolution.
The early 1990's saw Channel One keep a low profile in the public arena.
In fact, the National PTA was one of the first teacher's group to come
out against Channel One, a position it still holds today. In fact, the
NPTA asked Whittle to dismantle Channel One. Nonetheless, in 1994,
Channel One was purchased by K-III Communications (now Primedia). K-III
is more than 80% owned by KKR (Kohlberg, Kravis, and Roberts), an
investment firm notorious for hostile takeovers. In fact, the movie
"Barbarians At The Gate" is based on their takeover of RJR Nabisco.
(RJR is, of course, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, infamous because
of their "Joe Camel" ads for cigarettes.) Then a little thing called
the Internet took off...
In its sales pitch to potential advertisers, Channel One claims "We have
the undivided attention of millions of teenagers for 12 minutes a day."
It also caught the "undivided attention" of Jim Metrock, a retired CEO
from Birmingham, Alabama. Spurred into action by an incident in nearby
Jasper where a housewife named Pat Ellis was trying to remove Channel
One due to a story about then-Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders' plan to
legalize drugs, and Obligation, Inc. was born. Under pressure from
parents and community leaders, Channel One was removed in July 1995.
HIGH PRIESTS OF HARMFUL MATTER
Channel One's advertisements, to make a long story short, drive home to
impressionable teens several points:
1) You're ugly.
2) Greed is good.
3) Things are more important than people.
4) Happiness is only achieved thru owning the latest fad.
5) Wealth equals happiness.
It should be no surprise that demand for Nike shoes and fad fashions
get so out of hand that kids are actually being held up at gunpoint
for the shoes off their feet or the clothes off their backs. Nor
should it surprise anyone that many young girls become bulimic or
anorexic if the "thin is in" message is repeated enough. This last
message is sardonically pointed out in a parody ad at the AdBusters
website: a young, skinny woman, with her back to the camera, clutches
her stomach as she kneels over a toilet bowl. The caption mirrors a
popular fragrance ad: "Obsession For Women".
Their "partners", the advertisers, are frequently junk food companies
that want to prey on teen audiences. Slogans like "Hungry? Why wait?" or
"Have It Your Way" are thrown at kids. High-calorie fast food is treated
as healthy sustenance while real, nutritious foods rarely get mentioned.
DEALS WITH THE DEVIL (OR MARILYN MANSON)
Channel One frequently partners with financially-strapped schools to
peddle its ads to kids. Many school boards, when faced with reduced
revenues, often turn to corporate sponsors for help. The catch: many
companies demand "exclusive" representation at the school. And some want
to use school buses as advertising vehicles (pun intended) as well.
Plans were underway in California and Mississippi to put soft-drink ads
on school buses. The plans were rejected on safety grounds.
Conservative efforts to bolster corporate welfare and so-called
"school-choice" (a mechanism where taxpayer money goes to fund
non-public schools) initiatives frequently leave schools underfunded,
and, more often than not, wide open for corporate exploitation.
This approach is not unlike a wild animal:
hunt down the weakest and conquer.
FIGHTING CHANNEL ONE
Obligation's website, http://www.obligation.org is a treasure trove of
information for those seeking to eliminate commercialism from public
schools. AdBusters magazine also has a site at http://www.adbusters.org,
and the Center for Commercial-Free Public Education's website offers
tips on activism, and devotes a goodly portion to Channel One.
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