|
TV programs are lures designed to deliver an audience to advertisers. CARTOONS Cartoons today are aimed primarily at kids, to lure them to sit in front of the TV set (hours and hours) as the target audience for advertisers. Kids see 6 to 7 hours of TV a day; ads make up 12-15 minutes an hour. Average pre-school kids in America see over 100,000 ads before they enter 1st grade! Prior to television, animated cartoons started in the early days of the movies: each full length feature film would be preceded by short films, a Newsreel, and a cartoon (Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, and the like). In this original context, cartoons were free from commercialism, and made up a very small portion of the on-scene entertainment. Cartoons were not the main purpose of going to the movies, but a little extra bonus, freely given, without any strings attached. Thus, when TV in the 1950s started using cartoon programs for kids, and parents started using the TV as a "free baby-sitter," parents didn't think in terms of their kids being used as a target audience for advertisers. After all, kids had no money. What could they buy! But, advertisers soon found out that kids had "pester power" and would act as an "in-house" sales staff, begging and whining, until their parents bought them the toy or the breakfast cereal they saw on TV. The excesses of the content within cartoons and the advertising context around them eventually caused a reaction. Educational programs for kids ("Sesame Street") were created, and watchdog groups (Action for Childrens Television, PTA) got some changes made. Ads and programs, for example, have to have a separation bumper ( "And now, back to the program..."). Yet, such regulations seem to have little impact. More cartoons are in our future. With new computer animation techniques (and language dubbing of Japanese films), cartoons have become a very cheap programming to make. Some cable stations now show cartoon re-runs 24 hours a day. While there have always been some cartoons with adult appeal (Rocky &
Bulwinkle, The Simpsons), it is still a reasonable generalization to say
that the basic target audience for cartoons is the child. Or the child-like.
|