taylor@hplabsc.UUCP (07/14/86)
Reading a highly literate source, "TV Guide", I came across this most
fascinating bit...
"More Enjoy TV Than Sex, Says Ad Agency Study
--------------------------------------------
Ann Salisbury
"A survey just released has determined that more red-blooded
American men and women get pleasure and satisfaction from television
than from sex. Or from food or liquor or money, for that matter.
According to the study, more Americans enjoy TV than enjoy their marriages,
children or sports. The D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles advertising agency
conducted a demographically weighted survey of 1550 people over 18 in all
parts of the country. Erich Ruprecht, an associate research director who
wrote the questionnaire, says the study was done "to find out what was
important to people emotionally. We thought this might give us better
information as to how to pitch our ads."
"People taking part in the agency's survey were asked: "Which of
the following items give you a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction?"
Watching TV was checked by 68 percent. Other percentages were: friends,
61; helping others, 59; vacations, 58; hobbies, 56; reading, 55;
marriage, 45; sexual relationships, 42; food, 41; money, 40; sports, 32;
religion, 32.
"When the respondents were asked what they like to do for relaxation,
watching TV once again topped the list. It was followed by just relaxing
and doing nothing, vacationing, music, reading and going out to eat. Sex
and religion were each chosen by only one per cent.
"The results are not suprising, says ABC's vice-president of research,
Marvin Mord. "People watch television from 30 to 40 hours a week," he
points out, "There aren't many other activities that consume so much time."
"J. Ronald Milavesky, NBC's vice-president of social research, is
more cautious. "The people who answer ad-agency surveys are oddball in a
lot of ways," he notes, "They are people who like to cooperate in
surveys."
[Comments: First off, are there people out there that DON'T have red
blood? I've never been able to figure out the 'red blooded' bit...
Secondly, before anyone flips out about how this is from a doubly
biased source (first an ad agency, then a TV oriented magazine) try
to think about what isn't being said here ...
As I see it, the most interesting part about this article is that we
are led to assume that not only is TV some sort of curious meta-reality,
but that it's acceptable, indeed good, to choose it as the primary source
of entertainment and pleasure. That's not only bizarre, it's pretty
frightening - TV is absolutely NOT the most unbiased of media, especially
the major US networks, and to think that the majority of people in the US
not only believe it, but come to RELY on it as their predominant form of
entertainment... Well, it's pretty shocking, to say the least.
On the other hand, it seems NBC (and presumably the other major
networks) aren't unaware - after all, the article quotes a vice-president
of SOCIAL research...
Maybe I should increase my TV watching and skip netnews...hmmm....
-- Dave]