Channel One News has gone absolutely nuts pushing kids to buy the DVD or Blu-ray disc of The Hunger Games. They are also encouraging teens and preteens to find a “midnight party” to attend on the night of the release.
Above: Front page of the official website of Channel One News. Can you tell what these kiddie marketers think is the big news story of the day? It’s the midnight release!! Ads for Hunger Games DVDs and Blu-ray discs have been plastered over the entire website all week.
Below: Guess who welcomed students to the Channel One News TV show this morning? One of the stars of The Hunger Games. Coincidence? I think not. The very first voice and image schoolchildren hear and see is actor Liam Hemsworth of The Hunger Games. He takes up precious seconds of taxpayer-funded school time to talk to students. This type of misuse of school time is not rare. Channel One News is a hyper-commercial mess of a TV show.
This is a screen shot from Channelone.com’s web rebroadcast of the August 17, 2012 show. Unfortunately, the company continues to remove all regular commercials from this rebroadcast so parents cannot see any 15 and 30-second commercials for The Hunger Games DVD and Blu-ray discs, but they can see the “non-commercial” part of Channel One News. Yes, Channel One News considers an actor from a movie being advertised on Channel One’s TV show and website, sitting in front of a movie poster, with a graphic saying “The Hunger Games” under his name to be NON-COMMERCIAL. This absurdity is one big reason schools have refused to show Channel One News this coming school year.
