Television Commercials

Norman Mailer argues here that television commercials (1) undermine children's ability to concentrate, hence (2) undermining their ability to read, and therefore to learn.

He points out:

Soon enough, children develop a fail-safe. Since the child knows that any interesting story will soon be amputated by a kaleidoscope of toys, food, dolls, clowns, new colors and the clutter of six or seven wholly different products all following one another in 10-, 20- and 30-second spots all the way through a three-minute break, the child also comes to recognize that concentration is not one’s friend but is treacherous. For soon enough, attention will be turned inside out.

I couldn't agree more. Commercials teach children not just greed and lust for the products advertised, but more importantly, they teach children that you shouldn't expect to concentrate on a narrative for more than 7 minutes at a stretch. If you do expect a continuous story-line, you'll be sorely disappointed, because the story is going to be regularly interrupted for flashy advertisements that are completely irrelevant. Commercials are inherently antagonistic to the ability to concentrate.


Stuart Buck