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Show . By U.S. Senator Orrin G. Hatch JwW Your Man A In Washington Television. It's everything from babysitter to social revolutionist. It's a companion, entertainer, salesman, and educator. But television has its bad aspects too. As the most powerful advertising motivator, it is accused, and sometimes rightfully so, of creating desires and needs that are harmful. Television shows the disadvantaged how the middle-class lives. It shows the middle class how the rich escape. T.V. advertising creates a need for products and services without regard to the financial ability to purchase. It develops hungers for foods that have never been tasted and creates desires for unnecessary luxuries and extravagant services. Because of this power T.V. is heavily regulated by the government, severely criticized by its competitors, and often judged to be an unhealthy influence. A television set in an average American home is on almost 50 hours a week. The more voracious watchers are little children. Nielsen Rating Service statistics for the Spring of 1978 show kids, ages 2 to 5, watch up to 33 hours a week. There are more than 33 million of these young viewers, and they have exceptional influence with their parents, the buying audience. The food industry spends hundreds of millions of dollars to sell its products to these younger consumers, and youngsters, in turn, promote the goods to their product-buying product-buying parents. The big advertisers in this market are obviously tne canuy mu cereal manufacturers and fast-food restaurant chains. Because of the exceptional impact of the medium the Federal Trade Commission has stepped into the marketplace with a promise to regulate television in one or more of the following ways: 1) Ban televised advertising aimed at children too young to evaluate or comprehend its nature; 2) Ban sugared food advertisements aimed at all children; 3) Require nutritional or health disclosures paid for by the advertisers; 4) Require equal time for counter-advertising counter-advertising covering good health habits and dental hygiene; 5) Limit messages and techniques that don't distinguish between fantasy and reality. No doubt the intentions of the FTC are honorable. Public pressure is certainly in evidence crying for control of this delinquent --television. There is, however, another side of this story. Is it wise to control and punish the medium for the shortcomings of advertisers and their products? What has become of the free market system where a consumer chooses the products he wishes to purchase? pur-chase? The Federal Trade Commission has taken up the cause as "guardian of the people" and will attempt to save us from ourselves. For the sake of a few, the all-knowing federal government will apparently ap-parently once again pretend to know more about our needs than we know ourselves. |
