The CW show Gossip Girl has caused some concern for parents. Gossip Girl is considered the teenage version of Sex in the City. The show has a target audience of teenagers ages 12 to 17. Although the ratings are high and most are aware of the racy show, many people feel the new ad campaign for the show has gone too far. The Parents Television Council is outraged with the new risky ad campaign. The new campaign is centered on using sex to sell the tv program. It involves two people who appear to be having sex with the words OMFG posted across the picture. When the head campaign manager of the show was asked about the letters OMFG and what it stood for, he claims it is up for interpretation. OMG is commonly used for the statement “Oh My God,” so you can only imagine what the letters OMFG really mean. The Parents Television Council is pressuring advertisers to drop the ad campaign and make more parents aware of the content of the show. I think the worst part of the show is that it targets teenagers but yet the show is all about high school students who engage in sex, drinking underage, and drugs.
What are your thoughts on this show? Do you think that the target audience of this show is too young? What do you think about this new ad campaign and the use of the letters OMFG?
Here is the link to view the CNN coverage about this issue: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/showbiz/2008/04/28/anderson.showbiz.monday.cnn?iref=videosearch
7 comments:
I personally watch the show Gossip Girl, and therefore I have seen the new ad campaign many times. What I find interesting about the ads is that rather than primarily focusing on the female body, as we found in many ads we reviewed in class, the ads equally picture male and female sexuality.
The juxtaposition of the seemingly adult sexual images with the teenage language of OMG and OMFG is what I find most disconcerting with the ad campaign. However, I believe like the other shows on the CW such as One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl equally depicts teenage sexuality and alcohol use. I think it's up to parents to control what they believe is appropriate for their underage children to watch; yet, I think parents often underestimate what their children truly do experience in high school. As we read in the course material, children and oung adults often imitate what they see in tv and magazines, therefore i think parental control becomes a necessary component of keeping children from imtating these adult behaviors depicted in a high school television show.
I agree that's it's the parent's responsibility as well to keep their children away from such programs. I haven't had the chance to watch many episodes of Gossip Girl, but I have read the Gossip Girl Book Series, since I was in high school. Even when I was in high school reading these books I felt like a rebel reading such provacative books. As we've discussed, why is our media portraying young adults in such a sexual manner? 12 to 17 year olds are the crowds that use actors and actresses as role models. By having our younger individuals exposed to issues that people in their 20s and 30s are more common to be exposed to, how do we not expect teenage pregnancies, drug use, and other social issues to increase?
I haven't missed an episode of the series. I do think the target audience may be a bit young, but I agree that parents should be monitoring what shows their kids watch.
There is some sexual content, drug use, and underaged drinking. I just think it's weird that these high schoolers (they're Juniors, if I am remembering correctly) can get into bars, let alone drink in them! Is that what New York is like?
However, the show does show the consequences for bad decisions for the most part. Sadly, I don't think sexual activity, drug use, or alcohol consumption is uncommon for the target audience. Kids are different now than when I was in junior high and high school. I hear things like this happening where I'm from and all I can think is, "Wow. I never would have gotten away with that." Or, "Wow. My parents would have killed me if they knew I did that."
It just makes me wonder what will happen in the future. Scary.
I haven't seen this particular show, but I feel that young people these days are being forced to grow up faster than they should. My roomates and I were watching Beverly Hills 90210 the other day and it really is all about sex. I wasn't able to watch this show growing up because my parents thought it was innapropriate. Looking back I don't blame them. It's scary to think what is going to be on TV when I have children and I feel that I will regulate what they watch too...as much as I hated it when my parents did so to me!
I have only seen the show once, but I think it is just like the new Dawson's Creek or 90210. The target age for a show like this is too young, but I think it is the same for some of those magazines we looked at in class. The magazines that target 12-17 year olds talk about sex, drinking, and fashion too. Ultimately I think that it comes down to the parents taking responsibility for what their children are watching. The kids are going to find this stuff out there no matter what, so the parents need to get involved.
I watch the show and I believe it is racy and risky, but that also pulls in viewers. It is the parents responsibility to control what their children watch and this is hardly the most racy show on cable TV. There are a lot worse TV shows and movies. I understand this is about teenagers so it makes it worse, but the images shown are not that unrealistic. At my high school, students drank, smoked weed, and had sex. It is simply showing reality. And in this day in age, it is even more common.
I love this show. But i agree that the target audience is a little too young to see images like that on TV. However, there are also the books that are just a racy and leave little to the imagination as well.
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