Screen shot from Channel One News. This is not a commercial children would see at home.
Movie studios are depending more and more on DVD sales to make a movie profitable.
Tim Burton’s stop-action animated film Corpse Bride did well on its opening weekend back in September 2005 pulling in $20 million for a second place finish (Flight Plan was #1). The Warner Brothers movie remained in the box office top ten for only three more weeks before seriously trailing away. It made enough in the theaters, however, to be poised for substantial profit if, IF, the sales of its DVD were solid.
Warner Brothers called on Channel One News to deliver its captive audience.
Warner Brothers has worked with Channel One News for years. When Warner face the problem of how to advertise two teen TV series loaded with an unusual amount of sexual content, they turned to Channel One News. C1N devoted large amounts of advertising time to running ads and contests for “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” and “Dawson’s Creek.” Both shows were successful, in part, because Channel One News delivered provocative ads to teens and preteens without the knowledge of parents. Warner Brothers would later use Channel One News to promote its WB Network and some of its raunchier fare such as “Unhappily Ever After.”
Two years ago, Warner Brothers ran a commercial on Channel One, which Obligation believes caused many schools to dump C1N. In the ad for “Starsky and Hutch” a notorious, drug-using rap star named Snoop Dogg makes a drug joke that normalizes the use of marijuana among teens. It was outrageous and it was screened and approved by Channel One executives for airing in classrooms. Warner Brothers has a true friend in Channel One News.
To ramp up sales of the Corpse Bride DVD, Channel One went the extra mile. First, they customized the commercial and created a contest to lure students. On the ad, students are encouraged to “go to Channelone.com” and enter the contest. As an extra bonus for Warner Brothers, Channel One News would effectively eliminate the required showing of the “sweepstakes rules” that are mandated whenever a contest is advertised.
The rules are displayed after the ad, but for so brief a time that no student or teacher could read them. This was done on purpose. Channel One News is a taped show. Any mistake by an anchor reading the news is redone. Every portion of the show, including the ads, are reviewed and any problems are corrected before they beam it to schools in the early morning hours of a school day.
By cutting down the time for the “sweepstakes rules” Channel One has helped out Warner Brothers in several ways. Young people may believe that buying the DVD would help their chances of winning the contest. That is a natural way to think. The “rules” inform them that is not the case and that “A purchase does not improve your chance of winning.” Good to know, but why tell the kids? That is the way Channel One apparently thinks. Children are a TARGET MARKET to Channel One News employees, not much more. If Channel One can help an advertiser get some of a young person’s allowance money, then that is a good thing. If preteens and teens are deceived a little, so what? Big deal.
Shouldn’t children, more than anybody, know the odds of winning? Channel One could make an estimate of how many have entered similar contests in the past. They don’t. That would take extra effort. Channel One wants all students to go to their web site because there are more advertisers there who need students clicking on their ads. This is another good reason not to let students see the “rules.” If you are an 11-year-old and you see this Corpse Bride contest ad, you may decide to visit Channel One’s web site later that day at home. If that student could have seen the “rules” he or she would know that you must at least 13 to enter online. Channel One would rather students find that out on the web site than in the classroom.
This graphic should be in larger print size and should stay on the screen for an amount of time that would allow students to actually read it. That would be at least 20 seconds.
See for yourself. Channel One’s Corpse Bride contest. (This is at actual speed. The clip runs through the ad and into a black screen that begins the next commercial. The length of time you see the above “Sweepstakes Rules” is the time that students saw it.
Obligation’s Jim Metrock said, “Over and over, Channel One News shows its disrespect for children. One should err on the side of giving children TOO MUCH information about a contest, instead Channel One’s CEO Judy Harris chooses to give children too little. What Channel One executives don’t understand, because they are too busy trying to make money off of kids, is that teens, and especially preteens, have less life experience than adults. That is common sense to adults, but adults who depend on students for their paychecks, see the world differently. Channel One executives previewed this commercial and they decided exactly how long the ‘rules’ would appear on screen. Students deserve better. Students deserve schools free of Channel One News.”
