2001-12-18 21:54:49+00 by Shawn 3 comments
The times, they are a-changin'.
On Saturday - during Saturday Night Live - NBC will broadcast the first hard alcohol commercial since the '40s. Smirnoff is the lucky liquor.
I had always thought that this was an FCC (or some other Federal) regulation, but apparently it's only an informal rule the national networks agreed to abide by.
[ related topics: Business Current Events Consumerism and advertising Television ]
comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:33:50+00 by: petronius
When I was in television and film school back in the late 60's, the National Association of Broadcasters Code of Standards discouraged ads for hard likker, showing of actual live models in bra and underwear ads, and forbade advertising of cemetary plots. For the underwear situation, we would see disembodied girdles rotating on screen to show off their features, and in one case a marrionette wearing a Maidenform bra. Those happy hotties in the Hanes ads would have been impossible, to say nothing of the bounciness of the Victoria's Scret commercials. Apparently the last frontier is budget funerals.
#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:33:51+00 by: other_todd
Cigarettes. The last frontier is cigarettes, which I thought WERE actually banned by FCC rule and not just handshake.
#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:33:51+00 by: petronius
Rules vs. handshakes are sometimes a near thing. I think tobacco agreed to stop Tv ads, and maybe the FCC solidified it into a rule when it was apparent that nobody would challenge it. Here's the issue, tho. What if some guy starts his own new tobacco firm and tries to buy ads? He might say that since he had nothing to do with the sins of the past, he is not beholden to any such gentlemen's agreements. As to the scads of money delivered to the states (and the attorneys, he might say that since he wasn't in the business the current health problems have nothing to do with him; issue me a subpeona in 25 years. And if he goes out of business in only 24........