It’s a puppet show – with a violent and in-your-face twist.
It was a commercial for the Winter X Games a ESPN-driven sporting event
that features extreme sports like snowmobile racing and snowboarding. ESPN
is owned by Disney/ABC which is a major advertiser on Channel One.
The commercial, which ran at least once on Feb. 1., shows a puppet figure
on a motorcycle in a hotel lobby. The clerk, also a puppet, tells the man
that he can’t have a motorcycle in the hotel. The man replies that if he
is paying $400 for a room he can do anything he wants in the hotel. (This
is a paraphrase since we do not have the exact transcript of the ad. Obligation
has seen the commercial on Channel One.)
The man on the motorcycle then runs down the clerk. We then see a camera
shot of two real life children stunned as they look at this violence. Then
the commercial tells about the X Games. The character on the bike evidently
is suppose to be a real person in the X Games who is known for his tough
image.
Several teachers have expressed their concern about this commercial. Hopefully,
many teachers have turned their TV sets off and will not show C1 anymore.
Jim Metrock said, "The message of this Channel One commercial is
that if you pay for a hotel room you can do anything you want to the room
or hotel. Vandalism is not only "OK", vandalism is funny and
hurting people is hilarious. I have written to Debbie Millian, Channel
One’s school participatiion director about this ad. I ask Channel One to
apologize for running this ad. No reply from Ms. Millan. The X Games end
today so the ads will stop anyhow. There is no control over what Channel
One will advertise to children. Somebody at Channel One should have said
‘No way’ when they saw this commercial but they didn’t. ESPN offered Channel
One too much money. Channel One pours violence and disrepect into our children’s
lives and we allow it to continue. Channel One gets richer and our children
get dumped on."
