www.familywatchinternational.org

August 14, 2008

TV Commercials Are a Disturbing
Commentary on Our Culture

Dear Family Advocates,

I rarely have time to watch TV, but I love the Olympics, especially the swimming and gymnastics competitions.  So as my eyes have been glued to the TV over the past several days, I have been amazed by the blatant promotion of promiscuity and anti-family messages in the commercials that have been aired in the U.S. during the Olympic coverage.  This type of advertising is a disturbing commentary on U.S. culture and the standard of decency that is now apparently the norm.

I didn’t appreciate the multiple advertisements for beer that my children were exposed to or the commercial that advertised gambling at a casino and encouraged everyone to “Bring home the gold!”

However, I was particularly disturbed by the commercials that made light of promiscuity and attempted to make infidelity comical.  Think about it.  These commercials are expensive to produce and air and are the result of extensive market testing.  Clearly, some very sophisticated marketers determined that by bringing in sexual innuendos and making jokes about infidelity, they would sell more products.  That is a sad commentary on our society.

• One commercial advertised a new personalized credit card and featured a young woman making a purchase at a counter with her credit card, which had a photograph of her boyfriend on it.  The female cashier asked her if the photo was of her boyfriend and then put her own personalized credit card on the counter with a photograph of the same man.  As they stared at each other, the insinuation was that this man had been two-timing both of them.  This is supposed to be funny.
  
  
• Then there was the commercial advertising multiple flavors of chicken wings.  A couple was sitting next to each other, eating out of their respective cardboard boxes filled with chicken wings.  As the couple was enjoying their food, the narrator described all the different sauces that were available.  The man commented excitedly that he got to enjoy his favorite sauce while at the same time trying out new varieties.  He exclaimed, “It’s like being committed without being committed!”  His girlfriend or wife then gave him a dirty look, interrupting his revelry, connoting a double meaning to his words, i.e., that he liked to fool around with other women.  This was supposed to motivate people to buy more chicken wings.
  
  
• Another commercial featured a man driving a large sport utility vehicle who came across a hot air balloon that had landed in the middle of the road.  An older man popped his head up over the basket.  The driver told him he had plenty of room and could give him a ride. Then other male heads popped up, and one man informed the driver they were from a nudist colony.  They were obviously naked, although their bodies were only shown from the chest up.  The next scene was of the driver with all the naked men in car.  The driver had a grossed out look on his face as he backed down the road, and the suggestion was that he was glad his car was equipped with a back-up camera.
  
  
• The clincher was the commercial for the TV series The Office that showed a woman making out with her ex at the office (they were obviously naked but nothing was actually shown) right before her marriage to someone else.

These commercials are disturbing on two levels.  They graphically illustrate how desensitized U.S. society has become to what a generation ago would have been completely unacceptable.  But they are also an example of one of the mechanisms of desensitization which will facilitate the deterioration of societal values.  Advertisers are conditioning us and our children to laugh at promiscuity and infidelity and to think of them as common occurrences that are no big deal.

Sincerely,

Sharon Slater
President

News Items of Interest

Abortion  

Norwegian Study Confirms Connection Between Abortion and Depression.  Researchers at the University of Oslo found that women in their twenties are more likely to experience depression after induced abortion.  The study did not find a connection between teenagers who undergo an abortion and depression.  Read more here.

Adoption

Foreign Adoption Cuts Causing Anxiety in U.S.  Due to increased efforts to curtail international child trafficking, the adoption of children from foreign countries is becoming more complex.  Also, countries are encouraging domestic adoption and limiting foreign ones, making it more difficult for American families who wish to bring children from other countries into their homes.  Read more here.

Homosexuality Related

California Marriage Supporters Drop Efforts to Change Ballot Description.  After losing before two successive judges, California marriage amendment supporters have dropped their efforts to change the language which will describe the amendment on the November ballot.  They had sued to change Attorney General Jerry Brown’s description that passing the amendment would “eliminate the right” of same sex couples to marry. Read more here.

Anglicans Try to Avoid Split Over Homosexuality.  Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams had asked all branches of the 80 million member World Anglican Communion to forego blessing homosexual unions and ordaining homosexual clergy in an effort to prevent the splintering of the church.  Read more here.

First Same-sex Couple File for Divorce in California.  The two women married shortly after California legalized same-sex marriage, but separated three days later, citing irreconcilable differences.  Read more here.

General Interest

CDC Says HIV Rate in U.S. Higher than Estimated.  The epidemic is worse than previously thought.  The number of Americans living with HIV has risen since 1998, and the number of new cases each year has declined slightly.  Antiretroviral drug treatment is extending the lives of many living with AIDS.  Read more here.

India’s First Surrogacy Orphan in Legal Limbo.  The weeks-old child was abandoned by both her biological mother and by the Japanese couple who paid the surrogate to carry the child.  The couple divorced weeks before the baby was born.  The Japanese biological father has expressed a desire to adopt the child, but there is insufficient legislation in place to regulate surrogate pregnancies in India, and he may not be allowed to do so.  Read more here.

Netherlands Legalizes Polygamy for Muslims.  Polygamous marriage will be recognized as legal but polygamy generally is still illegal.  Read more here.

Australian Report Claims Babies are a Drag on the Economy.  The report by the Productivity Commission says that the rising fertility rate, which is the highest in 25 years, could hurt the economy by taking women out of the workforce.  Read more here.

 

Have We Gone MAD?

FWI Communications Director Lynn Allred offers some bizarre, real-life examples that make us wonder. . . Have We Gone MAD?

MILK: It Does a [Student] Body [No] Good

Don’t get excited.

I’m not talking about the little red carton of pasteurized, vitamin D-fortified, calcium-rich cow juice that’s on every elementary schoolchild’s lunch tray.

I’m talking about the late Harvey Milk--poster child of the California homosexual community.  First openly homosexual person to be elected to a major public office.  Former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, tragically murdered along with the mayor of San Francisco by a former city supervisor.  Revered and honored by the homosexual community.  So much so that they have convinced the California legislature to pass AB 2567, which legally requires the governor to proclaim every single May 22 as “HARVEY MILK DAY.”

Now, Harvey’s already received numerous honors.  He’s had books written about him, movies produced about him.  He’s got a Recreational Arts Center, a Civil Rights Academy, an institute, a library, some schools, and a Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender Democratic Club named after him.  There’s even a bust of him in the San Francisco City Hall ceremonial rotunda at the top of the . . . ahem . . . Grand Staircase.  But that’s just not enough. 

California legislators think he needs his own day.

And here’s what they think should be done on that day.  Public schools and educational institutions should “conduct suitable commemorative exercises” “remembering the life of Harvey Milk . . . his accomplishments as well as the contributions he made to [California].”  According to the bill, the exercises should be “integrated into the regular school program.”

Oh, and here’s what the bill says about Harvey Milk’s “contributions” that California schoolchildren (that’s K-12) will be obliged to commemorate:

“Perhaps more than any other modern figure, Harvey Milk's life and political career embody the rise of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) civil rights movement in California, across the nation, and throughout the world.”

Sadly, with this kind of “politically correct” indoctrination, California’s children will be left with something much more permanent than a milk moustache.

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