SPONSORS
Everything has to be “sponsored” by something or someone, it seems. Now-a-days nothing can exist, apparently, and stand solely responsible for whatever may happen to, because of, or from it being in existence.
We are all very familiar with the all-too-common expression of our day which tells us that whatever we choose to hear, see, glance at, or participate in -
is ”brought to you by ...”
Everything is brought to you - by someone. It puts you on notice if you see anything wrong with whatever it is you are going, to watch, do, hear or take part in, it is if anything about it disturbs you in any way, however slight, in is to be seen as not being their fault but, rather, that of the sponsor. That entity can, you see, be named legally as the one who is actually bringing whatever it might be into your stream of consciousness or portion thereof. One reason for such sponsorship of concepts is ultimately to establish responsibility in case you find something wrong with whatever you are led to see, hear or do. Sponsors have lawyers or other in/out experts on staff ready to prove whatever is needed - right or wrong.
We have all witnessed the growth of sponsorship in automobile racing. When I was a youngster, we talked about cars by the make of the car or by the driver's name if we knew it. We spoke of the red “Maxwell” racer thundering at a mile-a-minute or more at the Fair Grounds. Today, before crowds of over one hundred thousand people you see scores of racing cars decorated with the names, logos or slogans of hundreds of sponsoring firms. It is one of the most successful pages of advertising. Every visible inch of every car is emblazoned with colorful names and art-work favoring specific products, both the exteriors and interiors. Drivers uniforms are plated with the same material. Some have wonder which weighs the most the driver or his logo-lumped suit.
Recurrent talk is steady these days about doing the same thing to big league baseball ...selling advertising to all comers at any point on anyone's uniform. Can't you imagine a bat plastered with chip-equipped logos. Then, if a home run is hit on a certain logo - somebody wins a trip somewhere, if they guessed the right logo. Home runs, them selves could, then, become meaningless. New, designer uniforms will be essential, of course, because there's not enough salable surface available.
Television commercials long and delivered in larger doses in recent time are still widely accepted. Try a simple test to see how you family of TV watchers acts. Watch the next time all of you are watching a TV show together. Observe how many family members members stop talking when a commercial starts remain silent until the program content is resumed when folksy chatter renews its pattern. We have come to respect the presence of advertising in our midst
I have, I know, to a great extent. To be honest, some of the ad content is better written, acted and produced than much of the program content used and re-used on far too many “me, too” stations. Some people still deceive themselves with references to the “commercial-free TV” they say they enjoy so much. They need to re-examine the terms :'brought to you as a public service by...”, “listeners like you”, and other such obfuscations.
.A.L.M. October 30, 2004 [c579wds]
