Let’s keep Sundays special

Press, 22 June 1984, Page 15

Let’s keep Sundays special

Review ]

Ken Strongman

Imagine your least favourite television programme — the very worst — mix it with the next in line, double it and redouble it. The result will be something resembling television’s equivalent of a yak’s armpit. Then imagine it opening up into the living room whenever you switch on. This is the likely, not to say the inevitable, outcome of increasing commercialism. The Broadcasting Tribunal has sought comment on the possibility of Sunday advertising on television, application for which has unfortunately been made. Rather than a private letter, here is a public rail, even rant.

There would be absolute!

nothing wrong with Sunday advertising if it were to result in the remainder of the week being free of advertisements. However, this is about as probable as Louise Joyce ever gaining

control of her eyebrows. No, the aim must be to serve the interests of commercialism for the entire week, if not immediately, then certainly before very long. Any increase in commercialism on TVNZ should be resisted or, better still, rejected entirely. The basic problem is that, by their very nature, commercial interests must attempt to embrace the widest possible audience. The reason is simple: there is more money in it and it is money that counts.

It would not be so bad if, as in the British system, commercial television were to compete with noncommercial. In New Zealand, commercial interests compete only with each other. It is a fact of television life that unchecked commercial pressure, driving hard for increasing con-sumer-oriented audiences, lowers the general stand-

ards of everything. Quality control gives way to quantity control and we all pay in the end. Advertisements are not free.

More than all this, Sunday is special. Forgetting any religious considerations, it would seem reasonable that one day in the week should be different from the remainder. A day which, apart from “A Dog’s Show” and a touch of sport, is not competitive, racy or economically viable. In short, it is good to have a day, on the television as well as elsewhere, which is a complete, useless waste of money. It is refreshing in the proper

sense of sabbatical, fortifying everyone against the grind of daily decisions between ”M*A*S*H" and “The Young Doctors." If Sunday commercials ingratiate their way on to our screens, the obvious result will be that certain programmes will disappear before one can say “advertising agent.” Sunday culture from the Beeb will be squeezed out by toothpaste, the incredible ' Karyn Haywill be nudged over by the incredible Toyota, and the early evening documentaries will be hidden by roof tiles or drowned in sheep drench.

Eventually, all those pleasant, slow-moving, refreshing daytime programmes will just be an affectionate memory in the minds of farmers, gardeners, renovators, economists, music lovers and computophiles. Sunday is minority interest day, with

sport and films on the other channel. As it is. a sort of television perfection. But the advertisements will come and the perfection will be ravaged. Just for one day, why not avoid the warts?

Of course, this will not happen all at once, but that it will eventually is ineluctable. In the end, all pretence at a highbrow content on TVNZ will go. The middle brow will become highbrow and, in its turn, will be brutally shoved aside. All that remains will be the Neanderthal, or to sustain th earlier metaphor, the yak’s armpit. The advertising buck should not be passed to Sunday, but should be made to stop well short of it. Surely, just for a little while each week, television can reflect that there is more to life than money. Isn't there? Even if we have to pay for the privilege by an increased licence fee.