Dear CW11 executives,
Readers of this blog will attest, I hope, that I'm not a bluenose. My language is frequently terrible, I like my beer, and I'm not overly concerned with a certain level of bad behavior. And without getting political, I'm a firm believer that it's my job to raise my four-year-old son — not the government's, his school's or the media's.
But my running interference between my kid and the parts of the world I don't want him to know about yet shouldn't have to extend to censoring Mets-Nationals day games. First there was an ad for “Halloween,” with kids afraid of a certain house, knives brandished and people in terror. Now, a couple of innings later, “Death Sentence” — with much of the same and a thug telling Kevin Bacon he's coming to kill the rest of his family. (Hey, and now as I write this here's “War.” Thanks.)
Joshua understands there are scary movies and grown-up stories. So do I. But they have their time and place, and this isn't it. I'm trying to raise my kid as a Met fan, to appreciate things like El Duque bringing decades' worth of pitching guile, Carlos Beltran hitting a majestic home run and David Wright redeeming an error with a do-or-die barehand pickup. That shouldn't have to go hand in hand with trying to distract him from the idea that there are people who kill other people's children and then go after the rest of their family. Even in the realm of violent movies, that's a bit too close to home for a little boy.
If Joshua's up in the seventh inning of a night game and sees an ad for “Death Sentence,” that's my fault. But it's not the seventh inning of a night game. It's Sunday afternoon, folks. My worries about what's going to come through the set during an afternoon game should be limited to beanballs and umpire-manager dust-ups.
I'm sure a lot of you have kids too, so I'm confident you understand what I'm saying. Somebody at your network is making a mistake that makes you look irresponsible. Let's please not have any more of this.
Regards,
Jason
I am watching with my 10 year old son and saw the death sentence commecial and thought the same thing.
Long time viewer, first time writer here.
Something about this post compelled me to comment on how much I enjoy your writing, perspective, and passion for all things Metropolitans. While many bloggers may focus on just the game, I feel like talking about things as varied as the commercials during the game and the history of the team provides for a much more holistic experience for the reader and the fan.
Nothing to add here, really, but I just wanted to say thank you for your dedication. Upon my first few visits this site got onto my bookmarks toolbar in Firefox.
I don't have kids, but as many of you know, I have a very young niece who is also a Met fan.
And I agree with every word of this, Jace. Sunday afternoon, on network television, during a program children are likely to be watching, there should be a moratorium called on sex, bad language and violence.
With two kids here chiming in that I wholeheartedly agree. It's enough to make you pine for “Laryngectomy-Ex-Smoker-Guy” on SNY.
Dear lord no – I cannot STAND Tracheotomy Guy!
But I do agree that Mets games shouldn't feature ads that are objectively inappropriate for youngsters. CW11 should respect the fact that Mets games are viewed by the entire family.
Funny, I thought by the headline this might be a rant over how annoying it was to watch Pedro Feliciano shake his hand or his leg or something that was hit on the very last out and not get a replay or any kind of quick status report on what might have gone wrong.
As for the commercials, the most offensive part is listening to Gary Cohen, at corporate gunpoint, have to shill for “Two And A Half Men”.
I agree. That show might be the worst hit sitcom ever. At least Gary enjoys reading the Family Guy billboard.
And I might be wrong, but I recall SNY somehow controlling the ad sales even though the telecasts are on CW 11. So the blame might not be on the local sales suits at WPIX (which is not a network), but with suits at SNY (which is a network.) Not that I'm trying to defend their choice of ads or anything, but I thought it might be worthwhile knowing exactly who to blame. Also, I must admit, being a guy who never wants kids, I would have never even thought of it as something children shouldn't watch. I was kind of pumped seeing the Halloween ad because I'm a fan of Mr. Zombie.
In other words, never ask me to babysit, because the child would be warped within 7-9 minutes.
In total agreement with you Jason.
Wasn't there some sort of legislation limiting the type of advertising that could be shown during family viewing hours? If not, someone should start reviving the resolution, and soon. During an afternoon game FOX aired advertisements for Viagra; ABC and the NFL got flack about that Desperate Housewives promo. The Super Bowl half-time show is now on a seven second delay thanks to Janet Jackson's act.
It just seems nobody wants to be responsible anymore.
Good thing I'm not a surgeon, eh?
I would say that I agree with you, Jase, but I would just be repeating myself over and over every time I post.
I'm happy that I only had the game on the radio while I was outside with my 9-year old daughter….
Scary movie ads are better than trying to explain erectile disfunction to the wee ones. “When the time is right for what, Daddy?” “I dunno, to sit in bathtubs and hold hands. Shush, the game's coming back on.”
Phone calls, folks. Phone calls. Blogging about it will not raise the kind of attention that phone calls will. CW11. Just call the switchboard and say you'd like to leave a complaint about the advertising during the Mets game. X amount of phone calls will represent XxZ amount of their viewing audience. I'm serious, TV stations have people in place to deal with exactly these kinds of complaints. And they will care when males in the target demographic age range call to complain.
No girls, though. Because we already know that the Mets could give a flying flip about their female viewership. So moms shouldn't call.
In that same realm, how badly did the Elvis estate need the money that they had to license “Viva Las Vegas” to Pfizer and ruin both “Viva Las Vegas” and, at least in theory, the activity in question? Keep those leering jerks at the roadhouse away from my…television.
My goodness, and airing it during Elvis Week! Really, the King deserves better. Somebody this week described it best as a “multicultural Country Bear Jamboree”.
On the bright side, they didn't try to work up Viagra-relevant rhymes around “Jailhouse Rock”.
Yankee trolling deleted.
I know who you are and always welcome another passionate blogger, regardless of team affiliation, but don't go about it the way you did and we'll all get along much better.
I've always been puzzled by that song: “Number 47 said to Number 3 / You're the cutest jailbird I ever did see”. Were prisons very different in the 50s? Were they coed? Or was Elvis, ever on the cutting edge, foreseeing the whole “Oz” prison romance dynamic?
Maybe he had an advance screening copy of The Shawshank Redemption and took particular note of Tim Robbins' battles with “the sisters”.
Sadly, no amount of complaining will solve this problem, and here's why.
There are lots of ways for advertisers to efficiently reach women, girls, children, people over 35 — but there are hardly any ways to reach men aged 12-34. If you market a product aimed at young men and want them to see your TV ads, you have practically no choice but to buy sports telecasts. The broadcasters know they have you over a barrel, and that they can extract a pretty premium from you that other advertisers would balk at and other programmers can't command.
That's why the beer ads, the car ads, the violent movie and video-game ads, the car-insurance ads (young men pay the highest rates, remember), will always be there. It's also why tracheotomy man is there.
As for erectile dysfunction, obviously young men are not the only people watching the games. You can reach the Viagra set other ways as well — Fox News, for instance — but the numbers work for ballgame audiences too.
What I've never been able to figure is Atek trim boards — are there that many carpenters and architects watching Met games that it would pay them to spend so lavishly? Or are we all supposed to run out to Home Depot and grab up a few to build birdhouses with?
Well said, and I've never understood those trim boards either. But my objection's somewhat narrower. I don't mind ads for violent movies, impotence drugs or most anything else. I just don't want to see them when my kid might be watching.
They can try and sell me a DVD package deal of “Girls Gone Wild” and “The Hills Have Eyes 2” every inning and I won't complain — provided it's after 830 pm or so.
Here, here. My 7 year old daughter hates it when scary commercials come on, so I've taken to pausing the game for a few minutes during the first inning or two, just to give us some slack to fast forward through them.