Bethel Middle School (Bethel, CT) opens up the show on May 24, 2013.
From Jim Metrock: It angers me when Channel One uses young people to perform in a promotional piece like this. These young middle school students wouldn’t be so cheery shouting out “Channel One News starts right now!” if they understood the toll Channel One has taken on their education. These students lose up to one hour of school time each week, year in and year out. These children have paid dearly for Channel One’s “free” TV sets.
These students should be paid by Channel One for starring in this spot. This is a commercial – for Channel One. These students were told what to say. They had a script – a short script, but a script nonetheless. They all had speaking roles. They each should be paid at least the minimum union scale for such work. I’m estimating based on perusing some websites that each child should be paid $592.00. Some of the young people might be considered extras and would be due a much lower figure – maybe $50-$100. There looks to be at least 17 performers in this spot.
Channel One of course won’t pay these students anything. This company’s business model has been based on commercially exploiting schoolchildren for decades. So when a group of students find themselves in the Big Apple and ask to see Channel One’s studios, it just makes sense (to Channel One) to exploit them all over again.
“Hey, kids do this intro for us and we’ll show you around the studio. You don’t have much to say so say it like you mean it.”
This spot helps Channel One by sending a message to other schools that might be thinking about ditching the TV show. These students are giving a student endorsement much like a celebrity endorsement. The message Channel One is sending out: Look there is another school out there that loves us. They really do. Just look at those happy faces. We’re not controversial kiddie marketers at all. Please don’t drop us over the summer. Pleassse.
