A TV commercial is more than a potent pitch for a single product - it is an equally strong message in support of the lifestyles and values that surround consumption of the product. Given the urgent challenges of population, resources, and the environment, we need balanced messages that foster sustainable consumption. We need to consume with our eyes open to the real environmental and social costs of our actions. We require a new level of maturity as consumers, and this requires a new level of responsibility in how we use television. Ads could also be clustered at the beginning of each hour to break the hypnotic spell of commercials intimately mingled with entertainment programs.
Television also teaches by what it ignores as much as by what it addresses.
If environmental concerns are missing from our entertainment on TV, they are likely to be missing from our cultural consciousness. We need to build ecologically sound lifestyles and role models into our entertainment programming, as well as a balanced regard for the larger world situation. This diet trivializes our civilizational consciousness and is a recipe for disaster. We need a quantum increase in the level of socially relevant programming and a new commitment to strong investigative reports and documentaries to awaken public understanding and concern to the challenges facing our planet. We need to move beyond using television as a one-way, passive medium and begin experimenting with feedback forums.