We watch... so you don't have to.
Go Out and Play!
Nickelodeon is running this wonderful ad campaign, as I discovered while I was watching SpongeBob Squarepants with my four-year-old daughter. In the ad, several celebrities presumably all the rage with the under-fourteen set, but all entirely unknown to me, exhort kids to turn the TV off and go outside and play. Since we all know that children simply do what the TV tells them, this is a great use of the medium and a noble sacrifice on the part of Viacom, relinquishing viewers like that.
After the commercial was over I turned to my daughter, slouched on the couch next to me.
"The TV just told you to go out and play!" I exclaimed. "What are you gonna do now?"
Eyes never leaving the TV, she replied, "Nothing. Watch TV, I guess."
