From Jim Metrock: This is an email I sent Ms. Judy Harris, Channel One’s CEO.
From: [email protected]
Subject: Please remove Buzzed Drinking PSAs
Date: February 15, 2007 2:43:26 PM CST
To: [email protected]
Ms. Harris
Last spring, Obligation asked you to stop airing “Buzzed Driving is Drunk Driving” public service announcements prepared for the Ad Council and the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. https://obligation.org/article.php?recordID=39
These PSAs were not intended for the audience you attempt to serve. They are aimed at men between the ages of 21 and 34 according to a December 28, 2005 Ad Council press release that introduced the campaign. Mullen Advertising, the Boston-based ad agency that created the ad campaign, said teenagers were not part of the target audience.
These PSAs may well have a desirable effect on those in their twenties and thirties, but by showing them repeatedly to secondary school students, you help normalize underage drinking, which I know is not your intent. A message that might be beneficial to one age group may have harmful effects on those in a different age group.
Each PSA shows someone obviously drunk. These people are having "fun." The person is usually laughing, falling-down laughing – even if they just knocked out their front teeth with a beer bottle. (https://obligation.org/article.php?recordID=39)
In contrast to these obvious drunks are the young adults who have only had one drink. To some degree, everyone is drinking in these PSAs. That may be necessary to get the point across to men 21 to 34, but it sends a terrible message to teens and preteens.
Channel One is being irresponsible by once again airing these PSAs.
It is obvious these spots are not meant for secondary school students because they are about drinking and driving. The majority of your captive audience do not have a driver’s license. It seems like Channel One is airing these PSAs just to fill time and with little or no thought as to the negative impact on young people.
Years before you came to Channel One, C1N ran a PSA that showed a baby being shot in the face (the camera cuts away at the last second). This was a Partnership for a Drug-Free America spot that was aimed at inner-city, young women who might see glamour in having a boyfriend who is making a lot of money selling drugs, but when something goes bad someone might want to kill her baby’s father and accidentally get her baby in the rifle cross hairs (literally). At the time, I talked to the PFDFA and they said Channel One should never have shown that PSA to middle or high school students. When I brought it to Channel One’s attention, the spot was pulled.
I urge you to immediately remove these PSAs and to inform school principals (who usually have no idea of the content of your daily show) that the school should take appropriate action to undo the “everybody drinks” message of these PSAs.
I look forward to hearing from you. Since you have a history of being unresponsive to anyone critical of your company, if I do not hear from you, I will contact the appropriate people at the Ad Council and the NHTSA.x
Jim Metrock
Obligation, Inc.
205-822-0080
Note: You would think that a CEO of a company that deals with millions of young people would at least respond to my concerns, or anyone’s concerns, about their company sending kids wrong messages about drinking. I can’t imagine an adult not writing back, if only to say, "I disagree with you." Yet Ms. Harris does not respond. Her lack of response is bizarre. I am telling her that her company might be sending an inappropriate message about alcohol to impressionable young people. I have evidence to support my position. I took the time to find the original press release that said the PSA was created for an older audience. I provided a video clip of the PSA for all to see. One can argue with my analysis of the Buzzed PSAs, BUT why would Ms. Harris not take a few minutes to write back?
Only she knows.
