Here they go again. Another Friday and Channel One is devoting a large portion of their "current events" program to plugging their junk drink sponsor Gatorade.
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Gatorade "news stories" are so common on Channel One that the program ought to be called the Gatorade Channel. |
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Students sit back and watch another feature story about a high school athlete. |
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Wait a minute. Wasn’t there a Player of the Year featured last week on Channel One? Yes, and there will be one each week for the rest of the school year. From the Gatorade site: Award-winners are selected annually in football (boys), volleyball (girls), boys and girls soccer, boys and girls basketball, baseball (boys), softball (girls), and boys and girls track & field. This means there are 10 Players of the Year from each state each year – plus National winners like Mr. Porcello. For example: next week Gatorade can take minutes of school time to honor the Idaho girl’s soccer Player of the Year. |
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Students watch their class time tick away as this Gatorade winner holds up his trophy. |
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Channel One has two main goals with these advertiser/news stories: 1. Sell the product or increase brand loyalty. 2. Drive kids to the Channel One web site where there will be more advertising. |
Below is the page Channel One wants students to visit. Channelone.com is no more a news or current events site than the Channel One News show is. Both are all about marketing. That’s why the only company that wanted to own Channel One was Alloy Media and Marketing.
