Commercials Can Sabotage Family-Friendly TV

We often pay close attention to the shows our kids are watching, making sure they are age appropriate and don't contain offensive or unsuitable content. But unfortunately, some family-friendly shows are often interrupted by inappropriate commercials. During basketball season, Burger King came under fire for airing the provocative SpongeBob "I like Square Butts" add during TV shows (like basketball games) that, while not directed at kids, are likely to have kids viewing along with parents.

In our family, we had that exact issue with American Idol. Our kids love the show, and we watched it as a family for one season a couple of seasons ago. While we didn't feel that anything in that season of the show was unsuitable for kids, we certainly had to fast forward the commercials. Ads for TV dramas airing at other times were the worst.

A recent article on Newswise.com focusing on ads that run during football games cautions parents with some interesting statistics about the content kids will be exposed to during an innocent sporting event if they watch the commercials between plays. Football is a family event, and according to the article, 5.3 million children ages 2 to 17 will be watching football with their parents this fall. The cited analysis of the commercials that air during football games states that commercial breaks often contain ads for alcohol and erectile-dysfunction drugs, and that many ads also contain violence or sexuality, "including scenes about prostitution and strippers."

Once again, our DVRs or TIVOs come in handy. We can pause the game for a couple of minutes during commercials and then fast forward through them. Or, just change the channel during commercial breaks. Inappropriate commercials are easy to avoid, as long as you're willing to go through the pain of controlling the TV during every commercial break. Of course, then there's the case of the Super Bowl -- the only time in America when people actually want to watch all the commercials. Advertisers sure did work some marketing magic with that little tradition.