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Are any of you concerned about some of the commercials on TV now?   I wrote to a couple companies and got a polite response.  I think if they had been standing next to me, I would have had a polite pat on the head....(with a tough patooty lady under their breath)........Two that I wrote to were the Yoplait commericals with the sassy teenager playing her "unsavory" boyfriends off on her Mom for switching her yogurt with the remarks............"two can play that game"..........Obviously the Yoplait people are not parents and defnitely not parents of teenagers who for the most part need NO encouragement to sass their parents.   The other one is for Victoria's Secret underwear...........on TV all hours of the day and night with these unrealistic models prancing around half naked promoting Victoria's Secret.   For many young girls this sends a horrible message that they are supposed to look like these stick thin, tall models in order to be beautiful AND prance around in your underwear............not to mention all the hormonal boys of that age group who are getting mixed messages as well.   I was told by Victoria's Secret that they appreciated all comments about their "glamorise" product.............I guess I needed to say in big letters that I was OFFENDED...........it seems if anyone is OFFENDED by anything, it gets stopped immediately.   

 

Also do we really need all the commericals and pills about E.D !    They give all the health warnings and might as well say.............take this medication.........it will probably kill you, but hey, you can have sex whenever you want !   ALMOST funny............almost.  

 

OK........enough on my soapbox, but this bothers me a lot.   I am a Mother and Grandmother and went through those teenage years and now have preteen grandkids coming along to view all this junk.   

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Back in the old days--urp! Did I say that? I agree that these commercials seem to go too far. Especially the Victoria's Secret ones. The place to complain is to the network/show that pays for them, not the company that uses them to promote their product. Tell them that you have blocked the show/network that runs them, that you have impressionable pre-teens and that you're diligent about policing their programs. The networks try to place ads that lure their target audience, so action/horror/raunchy comedies will have "appropriate" commercials. My mall has a Victoria's Secret store and believe it or not they recently blocked the display windows with bright pink coverings. They used to have those huge angel models all over so I guess the mall management made them tone it down a bit. Who knows!

 

I think it's all relative and the pendulum will swing the other way to more conservative thinking as the next batch of kids start their own families and become strict about their own kids. I'm old enough for Social Security  ;) so I remember the sixties and seventies well. Those were hot times in many ways. My son cringes when we tell stories of high school, college, and the fact that Den and I lived together for a loooong time before we got married. We tell him we were cool before cool became cool! He just shakes his head.... I imagine it's because he's so impressed with his cool parents!

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My husband and I have complained to the companies and networks about this very thing.  One question they always want to know is what show you were watching when viewing the offensive commercial. Why I don't know but we have received emails from the companies. But wether it is taken to any level I don't know. But one of the commercials we wrote about was the BMW where the word was bleeped out about the mother comming to visit. We haven't seen it lately so perhaps they did remove it. I guess if enough people complain it may make a difference.

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I can take the Victoria's Secret ones - you see such things at the beach and women behaving just as sluttily (is that a word?) to boot.  The yoplait ones are pretty bad, but the ones that really offend me are the Poo- pouri and the toilet paper or toilet paper/wet wipe combo commercials.  REALLY?  Do we REALLY need to see this stuff on TV?  As I said on Facebook -- this is the kind of stuff you reserve for conversations with your best girlfriends when you've had too many glasses of wine.  And even then, I doubt we'd go there.  On the other hand, we might was well have moral social decay to go along with everything else in the hand basket!

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Televisions come with remote controls.  On those are several buttons.  One changes the channel and one turns the TV off. You don't have to be offended.  And, frankly, I have never seen the commercials you are referring to.  When I find a commercial annoying, I simply refuse to buy the product.  It works for me!

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Very true, Lynn, but when you consider that, in many homes, there are children watching some of these commercials (not all are run after they are in bed), some of them are just tasteless and inappropriate.  I mostly watch PBS or movies on my Roku box, but even I have been exposed to some of these solicitations, and they are not pleasant or appropriate.

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The ones that currently bother me are the Ford commercials. Children, who are obviously not of legal age to drive, are asking Santa for a real car. What expectations are these giving to our over-privileged children? There are so many messages in the commercials today that really do not fit reality. Yes, I can turn it off, or switch channels, but really I can't spend my day doing that for a sixty second bite. As Newton Minow said way back in 1961, televilsion is  "a vast wasteland."

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We seldom watch any big channels, like abc, nbc, etc.

 

We still on many of the channels we watch, get sickening ads.. 

 

We watch Animal Planet, Travel, Food, TLC, etc...

 

One local ad that gets me is when the guy, in 15 seconds,

repeats "In Sanford" 17 times.. As if we are a bunch of dunces.

It's a new car sales lot.. and I'll never shop there for that very reason.

 

When watching the news on abc, we just mute the ads and continue

doing what we want until the program comes on again.  Currently

the time showing the program is barely longer than the total time of

ads that run.

 

Rita

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I agree, Rita...........not only are so many ads distasteful, they are downright stupid.   They must think the public are a bunch of idiots.   I DVDd one of my favorite shows once and watched it later, but after fast forwarding through the commericals, the actual show was barely 30 minutes long...........the rest all commercials.    Then the people selling cars or ?? seem to have to scream at you instead of using a normal voice.   Crazy.   

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I doubt if complaining would do much good becasue we're of the age companies don't care about(over 50). Have you ever been surveyed and after they hear what age group you fit, the quickly dismiss you as they have already surveyed enough of that group all ready. Really? Truthfully, I would like to imagine I could fit into one of those VS ensembles. Only in my dreams (sigh).

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My kids are grown and on their own, but we do wonder about some of what is on TV...around our house we say "Who are they kidding, Victoria doesn't have ANY secrets" :)

My wife was a HS teacher until retirement this past year (and currently the State's Art Educator of the year) and did over the years have several young women who dealt with eating disorders. While I am not certain that this type of advertising is the cause of those destructive behaviors, I don't see how it can help...

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I also find the Victoria's Secret commercials to be offensive.

My eldest grand daughter, who is now almost 22, spent several years - on and off - in Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children eating disorders 'clinic' (a ward with 11 beds, which is always full). While there, the children are not permitted to watch tv, or have magazines etc. This is because of the ads, and the perception they give that you must be excessively thin in order to be attractive.

It is absolutely heartbreaking to see these kids (boys and girls) destroy their health trying to mimic these unrealistic images.

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Obviously the people making these ads and those approving these ads are not parents of kids of any age.   If they were, they would think twice about what they are putting in front of our young people.  Bad enough the ads are on during the evening, but these ads are on all times of the day and night.   Young girls at the "hormonal, impressionable" age get the message that they should be 6' tall, weight 110# and walk like a horse in stilleto heels IN YOUR UNDERWEAR !     No to mention the young boys of that same age getting the wrong ideas..........they don't need much help in that department when their own bodies are growing and changing and all these feelings come bursting forth.   

 

Many of the prime time TV shows are just as bad...........and the movies are horrible........so much violence, nudity, jumping into bed right and left with no thought to the consquences?  

 

We have granddaughters ages 9 and 11..........the younger one is going to be a big girl.........she is by no means fat, but she has already had other kids tell her she is fat.   She is solid as a rock, athletic, swims 5 nights a week...........but she even said one day that she was fat.   Makes me sad and angry.   We also have 9 and 12 year old grandsons whose eyes bug out when those V.S commercials come on.....pretty hard to get to the TV in time to tune out or shut off.........

 

Yes, there is a remote and mine has all the buttons, too..........not always possible to use it though.     :(  If you haven't seen these commercials, then you are fortunate.  They are pretty hard to miss. 

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I completely understand everyone's thoughts above regarding the TV commercials and all of those "reality" programs and the TV shows, the movies, the music vidoes -- many of these now contain a lot of sexual inuendo, and the F Bomb is obviously "bleeped" out. Everyone knows, even the kids. This world has evolved and changed. Everything out there is excessive and over the top. This is now the new "normal" along with tolerating other cultural changes within our society. Speaking of cultural changes, it wasn't that long ago when women or black people did not have the right to vote, and people were offended by that change and fought against it.

 

Honestly, I think this world will continue to change, society will continue to tolerate and accept the "newest" normal. Normal will continue to evolve.

 

The best defense to this is to be there constantly with your children, and to reinforce core values. No matter what the "newest normal" become, our corest of core values held dear within us will remain. Continue to reinforce core values with childen. They are not dumb; most of them know what "reality" is and they know what "fantasy" is. Just be honest, truthful. Communicate with the kids. Let your children know what's really important deep down as they grow up, so their expectations are solid and grounded.

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