My name is Alex and I have a very important request for you. Before I get into that, I would like to be sure that I am correct in my understanding of your organization's mission statement and beliefs.
I have recently become aware of your "TV Turnoff Week" campaign. During this time period, you encourage everyone to abandon "passive entertainment" of any variety such as television sets, video game consoles, DVD players and video iPods. According to you, the information communicated by the television industry is created by a very small group of people and thrust upon the masses in the name of profit and complacency. You describe television commercials as possessing "unhealthy" and "unwelcome" messages, and you hope that eliminating television influence will have a broadening effect upon the public.Television, like all other communication achievements of mankind, brings good and bad results. For example, with the printed word we get things like newspapers, medical textbooks, and the complete works of William Shakespeare. However, in order to appreciate these things we must also get less desirable outcomes like Mein Kampf, junk mail and Ziggy comic strips. In the medium of television, we make similar trades all the time. Sure, we get to see the human race landing on the moon for the first time, but in exchange we have to put up with reruns of "7th Heaven." Fortunately, we have the built-in power of discretion. If I only want to read Shakespeare and not Hitler, I simply don't read Mein Kampf. If "7th Heaven" comes on right after the moon landing, I get up and turn off the television before it starts. It's just that simple, and it doesn't have to involve throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
One of the products you offer on your website is a "TV-B-Gone" television zapper which is basically a glorified portable universal remote that can be used to turn off television sets in public places. This product epitomizes the hypocrisy that your organization preaches by allowing one single critic of television to determine what the population at large may choose to watch. It is this very concept that you attack within the television industry; Marketing executives make the same decisions everyday for large groups of people.
To push your agenda, you have decided to use what is clearly the most effective and persuasive force that is available to us today. Something that has self-evident veracity and is obviously free of tampering or misrepresentation. That's right, the internet petition! Since you started your "Media Carta" online petition, you have accumulated over 25,000 electronic signatures. If these figures were correct, it would be difficult to argue that your views don't represent a large faction of the public. However, I checked out your petition and noticed some particularly interesting folks that have "signed" your Media Carta. Here's a recap of some of my favorites just within the most recent of your signatures: "Haaaaa Haaaaa," "sfw ergag," and my personal favorite "etjgwvao; sghhgg." Either there are some parents out there with interesting senses of humor or quite a few of the electronic signatures are complete nonsense.
Perhaps your most ambitious effort has been your "Uncommercial" campaign where you attempted to purchase advertising time from major media networks to air your short advertisements for your website and your TV Turnoff Week. From what I understand, CNN agreed to air the segments three times, whereas all the other networks wouldn't really give you the time of day. I definitely understand how frustrating that can be!
Which brings me to that very important question for you that I mentioned earlier. I would like you to run the following banner advertisement on your website which displays my personal views of what you organization does:
This banner campaign will kick off "Adbusters Turnoff Week" and hopefully give momentum to the "Kill your 'Kill your Television' Fanatic" movement. I trust that you will have no problem giving me this forum to thrust my own personal beliefs onto your otherwise happy audience.
Thank you in advance. I look forward to your reply.
Yours truly,
-Alex Italics
