patronising digital advert

I've just seen an advert on BBC-1 for the government's digital switchover
help scheme. This is intended to help those over 75 make the switch from
analogue to digital TV. The advert showed a garulous old fool who seemed to
lack social awareness and common sense. The young relative and the young
engineer exchanged meaningful glances, as if to say, "She can't help being
daft; she's old." How incredibly patronising and insulting this is to the
very people they claim to be helping. It seems that in modern Britain,
whilst racism is almost a capital offence, ageism is officially condoned.

Incidentally, anyone with elderly friends or relatives who don't use the net
but might benefit from sensible non-patronising advice about analogue
switch-off should help them access the information on
www.paras.org.uk

Bill

In article , Bill Wright
scribeth thus
I've just seen an advert on BBC-1 for the government's digital switchover
help scheme. This is intended to help those over 75 make the switch from
analogue to digital TV. The advert showed a garulous old fool who seemed to
lack social awareness and common sense. The young relative and the young
engineer exchanged meaningful glances, as if to say, "She can't help being
daft; she's old." How incredibly patronising and insulting this is to the
very people they claim to be helping. It seems that in modern Britain,
whilst racism is almost a capital offence, ageism is officially condoned.


Totally agree!. Don't they -ever- think that one day they'll be old to?..


Incidentally, anyone with elderly friends or relatives who don't use the net
but might benefit from sensible non-patronising advice about analogue
switch-off should help them access the information on
www.paras.org.uk


Indeed)..

Bill



--
Tony Sayer

tony sayer wrote:
It seems that in modern Britain,
whilst racism is almost a capital offence, ageism is officially condoned.


Totally agree!. Don't they -ever- think that one day they'll be old to?..

You don't when you're in your twenties, and that's the root problem.

--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

www.paras.org.uk

tony sayer wrote:
In article , Bill Wright
scribeth thus
I've just seen an advert on BBC-1 for the government's digital
switchover help scheme. This is intended to help those over 75 make
the switch from analogue to digital TV. The advert showed a garulous
old fool who seemed to lack social awareness and common sense. The
young relative and the young engineer exchanged meaningful glances,
as if to say, "She can't help being daft; she's old." How incredibly
patronising and insulting this is to the very people they claim to
be helping. It seems that in modern Britain, whilst racism is almost
a capital offence, ageism is officially condoned.


Totally agree!. Don't they -ever- think that one day they'll be old
to?..


And *WHAT* were your thoughts on 'oldies' when you were in your teens,
twenties, thirties - and possibly forties when you were showing them how to
use that new fangled invention called the video recorder - or even early
mobile phones? ;-)

Cash

Cash wrote:
tony sayer wrote:
In article , Bill Wright
scribeth thus
I've just seen an advert on BBC-1 for the government's digital
switchover help scheme. This is intended to help those over 75 make
the switch from analogue to digital TV. The advert showed a garulous
old fool who seemed to lack social awareness and common sense. The
young relative and the young engineer exchanged meaningful glances,
as if to say, "She can't help being daft; she's old." How incredibly
patronising and insulting this is to the very people they claim to
be helping. It seems that in modern Britain, whilst racism is almost
a capital offence, ageism is officially condoned.


Totally agree!. Don't they -ever- think that one day they'll be old
to?..


And *WHAT* were your thoughts on 'oldies' when you were in your teens,
twenties, thirties - and possibly forties when you were showing them
how to use that new fangled invention called the video recorder - or
even early mobile phones? ;-)



I wouldn't mind betting that there are plenty of people in their sixties'
nudging seventies contributing to this newsgroup who wouldn't mind a pound
for every technical problem they've sorted out for people less than half
their age ;-)

Mark Carver wrote:
tony sayer wrote:
It seems that in modern Britain, whilst racism is almost a capital
offence, ageism is officially condoned.


Totally agree!. Don't they -ever- think that one day they'll be old to?..

You don't when you're in your twenties, and that's the root problem.


One of two roots. The other is - why are people that age in charge of
the ad. campaign anyway?

Andy

On Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:25:42 +0100, Peter Duncanson wrote:
Oh, and I wouldn't rely on young relatives to be any more clued up than
the elderly.

In fact a lot of elderly parents got a Freeview digital converter box
a long time before their younger relatives.

And any comments on that FOX commercial for the digital transition
featuring an old lady?

Frame from video only, since video is currently not available due to
copyright claim --

http://www.engadgethd.COM/2008/11/06/digital-tv-transition-spoof-video-is-both-informative-and-hilari/

On Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:06:19 +0000 (UTC), J G Miller
wrote:

On Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:25:42 +0100, Peter Duncanson wrote:
Oh, and I wouldn't rely on young relatives to be any more clued up than
the elderly.

In fact a lot of elderly parents got a Freeview digital converter box
a long time before their younger relatives.

And any comments on that FOX commercial for the digital transition
featuring an old lady?

Frame from video only, since video is currently not available due to
copyright claim --

http://www.engadgethd.COM/2008/11/06/digital-tv-transition-spoof-video-is-both-informative-and-hilari/

I saw it before it was pulled. It is both humorous and informative.
The humour outweighs any hint of patronisation.


--
Peter Duncanson
(in uk.tech.digital-tv)

On Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:45:36 +0100, Andy Champ
wrote:

Mark Carver wrote:
tony sayer wrote:
It seems that in modern Britain, whilst racism is almost a capital
offence, ageism is officially condoned.


Totally agree!. Don't they -ever- think that one day they'll be old to?..

You don't when you're in your twenties, and that's the root problem.


One of two roots. The other is - why are people that age in charge of
the ad. campaign anyway?


Not exactly the same topic but why do females allow themselves to be
presented as totally air-headed or vacuous on TV adverts.

SWMBO was watching "true movies" this afternoon the film had been
edited into 7-8 minute segments between which were replayed exactly
the same sequence of adverts one of which showed a woman with a scabby
kid about six years old who had stained his T-shirt with pizza
topping. As if by magic another female dressed in a pink jump suit
appears from nowhere with an "intelligent" washing powder and saves
the day - mugs of instant coffee all round leaving the woman appearing
a poor 3rd in the intelligence stakes behind the scabby 6 year old kid
and the washing powder.

Last advert in the sequence was a woman who burst into song because
she could play Lotto / HTML one arm bandit games on the internet for
20p a go.

What an empty meaningless life they must lead.

Derek

On Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:30:43 +0100, "Ivan"
wrote:

I wouldn't mind betting that there are plenty of people in their sixties'
nudging seventies contributing to this newsgroup who wouldn't mind a pound
for every technical problem they've sorted out for people less than half
their age ;-)

....or even over seventy. Yes, please!
--
Alan White
Mozilla Firefox and Forte Agent.
Twenty-eight miles NW of Glasgow, overlooking Lochs Long and Goil in Argyll, Scotland.
Webcam and weather:- http://windycroft.gt-britain.co.uk/weather