Public-diserved

Public service announcements PSA’s and most advertisements, dis-serve Americans. Furthermore, they waste money. What else can be concluded about messages that never tell the truth, misrepresent the issue or product or if followed, lead to unforseen, unfortunate circumstances?

Would that it were as simple as parents or guardians confessing to child abuse and neglect, an service announcement suggests. But no way. Anyone suspicious of child abuse should report it anonymously so he or she escapes exposure if in error and parents are visited and/or arrested. Sometimes children are removed from the home by child protection service or even worse, put in to foster homes. Nowadays, of course, virtually anything passes for abuse and neglect from not wearing a seat belt to a slap in the child’s face for spewing a dirty word. The public service announcement encourages snoopers and do-gooders to report politically-incorrect actions by parents even though they are proper, preventive disciplinary actions. Parents should follow the advice in the commercial for Hamburger Helper because its use creates a ‘happy family.’

The announcement that serves to deter men from gun crimes focuses on the wife and 2 sons who metaphorically serve the prison sentence with the culprit. Misleading is the statement about the wife and family because crimes with guns are committed by youth who do not have an intact family such as a wife and two sons. Also unspoken is the fact that most of these criminals are black.

Then there’s the plea to seek help for a drug problem. Supposedly a problem like shyness, boredom or stress leads to a more serious problem, drugs. Too bad none of these three problems cause drug problems. Getting high or getting a buzz on are first and foremost, fun, not problems. Also, shy youth do not have many friends, as stated in the ad, with whom they wish to ‘fit in.’ Neither is boredom a cause since it represents laziness which the PSA does not mention. Stress is synonymous with adolescent biology, not the cause of experimenting with drugs. Doing drugs means doing dangerous, bad and rebellious things. Duh!

Then there are the supposedly wonderful ‘learning moments’ fathers should take with their sons while driving or eating dinner. An ad council describes a 38 yr. old dad with his 2 yr. old son. Is this the normal time frame for parenthood? If dad married at 35, are we all to hope that his virginity carried him to the altar? Was there an altar? Reality tells us that men and women begin parenting as early as 13. Is this PSA preaching a subliminal message for birth control, delayed fatherhood or what? Furthermore, it’s obvious that talking to children builds vocabulary. Service announcements generally serve common sense and doses of the obvious. Why can’t this announcement be true to life?

Another ad encourages victims to locate a physician at a certain website to get help for withdrawal from an addiction. The solution will be provided by a physician. Why? What solution could a physician offer to a drug addiction (pain killers are implied in the announcement) other than other drugs since we know physicians do not practice counseling, psychoanalysis or evangelism. They prescribe drugs.

It is announced that the police will chase you down for seat belt violations. They are serious now, so buckle up. Fear of a fine not freedom of choice now rules behind the wheel. Yes, the announcement sounds compassionate and concerned, but the end result revolve around collecting money. An analogous operation is the use of cameras at intersections to prevent red light runners. The end game is to garner more cash for the city or county coffers.

As a senior citizen I am reminded not to over-do it, over-spend or over-eat by a concerned sponsor. Now I ask any of you seniors who have worked hard and long to get to our present status, if you want to hike downhill? If I can over do it, if I have the money to splurge on a purchase or if I am healthy and can occasionally over-indulge, I’m proud to say to one younger and less fortunate, ‘eat your heart out.’ The last message that I want to embrace is fear of dying in my old age! As usual a public service announcement bases its message on fear-mongering and fantasy. Only those seniors who over-do everything put anti-oxidants into their bottled water to increase longevity.

One of the most offensive (literally and figuratively) PSA’s says "Don’t pass gas in a house or in another person’s face because (and it rhymes), it’s "worse than mace." Really? Surely the pain of mace exceeds that of a whiff of cigarette smoke. But the implication is that the smoke will kill you. What will kill everyone, of course, is a stopped heart. Short of that, life is a series of choices the outcome of which more or less resembles a poker game in which the lucky player holds a winning hand sooner and more often than others.

Dana Reeves’ sister pleads with listeners in another ad for an advocacy group, stop the spread of lung cancer from second-hand smoke. Her statistic that ½ million Americans will die from lung cancer by 2010, proves that we must ‘do something now.’ 450 a day, 650,000 by 2010 will die from the world’s deadliest cancer. She says, sincerely, "Where’s the outrage?" The outrage is her use of over-stated fear. A mortality figure of 325,000 a year ( if 2008 and 2009, represent only 2 years) does not explain or uncover that fact that cancers often spread from elsewhere in the body to the lungs to cause death. And statistically not all smokers die early (?) from lung cancer.

The latest radio ads for playing the Ohio Lottery act like public service announcements. If you play the lottery, that is, throw your money away gambling, you will have fun taking a chance for children in public schools, which are failing in spite of ever-increasing funding. Yet you are warned to play (gamble) responsibly. I say, "Where’s the outrage?" I have never been able to chew with both sides of my mouth simultaneously. The government can. It can also speak with forked tongue.

Why put your faith or credibility into any PSA, public announcement or ad that supposedly benefits the consumer? Common sense and the obvious render them useless. Experts now link 8 food colorings with hyperactivity in kids. Any parent’s personal observations should confirm the fact that healthy kids are active, especially boys.