Tumblr Icon RSS Icon  Why PBS’s Condescending New Ad Campaign
Works Against Its Mission—And Its Great Programming  By Alyssa
Rosenberg on May 30, 2013 at 1:04 pm  "Why PBS’s Condescending
New Ad Campaign Works Against Its Mission—And Its Great
Programming"   google plus icon  PBS has been getting a lot of
attention for a snarky new 50th anniversary fundraising campaign
based from WNET, its New York affiliate, around parody
billboards for reality television ads that basically make the
argument that it’s horrible and disgusting that a lot of
Americans watch stupid reality television programming, and so
why don’t you give us all the money instead?  It strikes me that
there are two problems with this approach. In order to fulfill
its two missions, PBS has to do two things: raise money to put
programming on the airwaves, and attract people to watch that
programming to demonstrate that their efforts are useful and
worthwhile. This campaign is entirely aimed at the first goal,
potentially at the expense of the latte