Commercial Advertising on ABC News
On February 18, 2018, I came across two commercials on Sunday night television while watching ABC news. The two most notable ads noticed were done by two companies, namely Toyota and Verizon. Another interesting fact about the frequency of advertising is that the commercials had a time span frequency of twenty-five minutes in between the news broadcast. With regards to the first commercial involving Toyota, we can see that the company is responsible for sponsoring the ad. The advertisement also is short with only thirty seconds for the consumer to absorb the different deals on the cars meant to capture the audience’s attention. Also, we see Toyota not involving any people in the advertisement partly because it wants to cater to a broader audience. It is the customary way of doing things since ABC news usually has a more prominent audience of African-Americans. Thus, to form some aspect of inclusivity and neutrality, the commercial targeted at the broader American audience.
Toyota's Stance on Climate Change
A well-known fact in the automotive industry is that Toyota has a reputation for manufacturing fuel-efficient carts and has a large market base. With that, the company has a public stance in that it is a supporter of the United States Chamber of Commerce. The conflict here arises from the fact that the U.S Chamber of Commerce is not a supporter of information and research claiming the validity of climate change. The advertisement takes on a two-faced stance with the inclusion of their hybrid Prius car famed for being environmentally friendly. Nevertheless, the fact that the company supports an agency that has fought a proposed law against the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions speaks volumes about itself.
Impact on Consumer Perspective
The issue here is that Toyota Company will not sponsor any commercial that relates to climate change because of its involvement with the Chamber of Commerce. As such, the audience is left with only a one-dimensional view of what car to buy and robbed of the option of gaining information about the effect fossil-fuel vehicles have on the environment. The keyhole view here is very well reinforced where such advertisements appeal to audiences’ emotions through depictions of favorable sales options that make the affordability of such cars a very high possibility. To further support this stance, Toyota has publicly come out to offer their stand on the climate change law. This is a position they did not take which means their indecisive nature shows how hypocritical they are in wanting to appeal to both sides. Moreover, the company has faced accusations of being complicit in campaigns by fossil-fuel companies involving millions of lobbying money in a bid to block legislation on climate change. As such, it proves difficult for the consumer to get information on climate change if the prime time news has a flooded platform with companies that do not support it in the first place.
Verizon Fios and Climate Change
The other company that also had a commercial is Verizon Fios. A high-speed internet fiber optic company has an extensive market base of about eighty-seven million subscribers. The company is well known for its clean energy initiatives as it was recognized by the Environmental Defense Fund. Such efforts include supporting solar projects, saving energy, divesting into renewable energy, and reduction of greenhouse gases. However, the company has developed a partnership with one of the most prominent critics of climate change, Don Blankenship, the CEO, and president of Massey Energy. The company itself is known as one of the largest companies in the United States that deals in coal and is involved in one of the most environmentally degrading acts of mountaintop removal coal mining. The CEO of this company is also the mastermind behind the “Friends of America” campaign which features individuals that are skeptics and deniers of climate change information and research. As such, this proves a clear testament that Verizon would not involve itself in any explicit form of advertising promoting dissemination of climate change efforts to its consumers because of its industry partners. The consumer is, therefore, left with no option but to consume products of companies that have hidden agendas of protecting their business interests of not promoting climate change debates placing them in a disadvantageous position.
Democracy Now: An Independent News Agency
A look at an independent news agency, like Democracy Now, says a lot about the difference it portrays when compared with other corporate sponsored news broadcasters. One is that there are no advertisements by any company and also no news on the weather and sports. Their stories feature heavily on facts not covered in main media streams. An example is a story on high maternal deaths of black mothers in hospitals. They focus was made on one anti-police activist called Erica Garner who died four months after giving birth. The coverage is extensive in that they engaged an agency known as ProPublica that did an investigation on the high maternal rates in the US, of which black mothers contribute a high proportion to the statistics. As such, Democracy Now destroys the keyhole view by providing information and stories of persons who would not feature in mainstream media because they do not elicit much emotional capture for the audience and, thus, might not necessarily drive viewer ratings up.
