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Sadly, today, PBS is an infomercial for ancillary products, so it makes perfect sense that they have been partnering with Amazon. (You don't get rich by produc
by subpixel 8y ago
Sadly, today, PBS is an infomercial for ancillary products, so it makes perfect sense that they have been partnering with Amazon.
(You don't get rich by producing a show for PBS, but plenty of people have gotten rich(er) through the promotional power of parading their own products on national tv inside a pseudo 'non commercial' bubble.)
- tombert 8y agoAs a kid watching Arthur and Dragon Tales, they would have ads for 7-eleven afterwards, due to them being a sponsor. I didn't really realize it as a kid, but it's kind of weird that an ostensibly public project was promoting a place that sells the least healthy food on the market.
- Wowfunhappy 8y agoUnless your channel was different than mine, yes they had ads but they were quite benign compared to other channels. In addition to being very short and infrequent, the ads never attempted to sell a product—they just stated the company name and how proud they were to support PBS. I'm sure these types of ads can have some psychological effect, but it's hard to see them inspiring a child to start begging their parents for a certain product.
- tombert 8y agoYou're not wrong; the ads for 7-eleven (if I remember correctly) were some dude walking around, and then the logo, followed by the line "Oh Thank Heaven!". I doubt my habit of eating unhealthy fast food all the time stemmed from those commercials. I just found it a bit bizarre.
- Wowfunhappy 8y ago> I just found it a bit bizarre. Put another way: lots of government projects are a cooperation of public and private interests. Highways contain billboards, for instance. I don't have a problem with these types of projects, provided they don't turn into pure corporate giveaways of public money. I really think PBS has struck a good balance.