Blog Post 1 - Television Will Always Sell

            In the article Television Influences Fashion Trends (1) both political economy and the television industry are addressed. The article discusses how television currently helps fashion with merchandising and marketing. People see certain Television characters and they idolize them. Therefore they start to act and dress like them. If a fashion company starts to see a show that is becoming popular and a character that is the star of the show, they are likely to sponsor the show in one way or another to have their clothing on the character.

            Similar ideals were put into place in the article The Suburban Home Companion (2). This article discusses Television as it started to emerge. In the 1950s, as TV became more and more popular in suburban homes it was used for political economy. The Television industry wanted to present it’s ideals and basically get Americans to do what they were “supposed to” do.

            In the 1950s there was a large shift from people living in cities to people living in suburban areas. With that came the perfect suburban situations. That meant very few elderly and gay people and also very few minorities. Middle class white citizens were the most ideal for these communities. Since that was the most ideal, that’s exactly what Television showed.

            In addition to exploiting a trend, The Suburban Home Companion (2) exemplified how television used to give families relief. The big move from the city to the suburbs gave some families worries, but showing the same situations on Television helped people relate and therefore made them relax. The article uses the example of an I Love Lucy episode. Lucy and Ricky make that move from the city to the suburbs and in the end it all worked out great. They were even reunited with their best friends again.

            When the Television industry shows people a trend or shows them a relatable situation with a happy ending, they are mildly brainwashing their audience, similar to using fashion on Television. Television Influences Fashion Trends (1) uses the show Mad Men as an example. Mad Men is a show that takes place in the 1960s-1970s, making the clothes that they wear outdated. Regardless, when people saw Don Draper wear those clothes it didn’t matter what time period it was. People now wanted to dress like Don Draper so they could be cool like Don Draper.

            Television has constantly been selling stuff to their audiences whether the audiences wanted to be sold to or not. Whether it’s clothes or fashion, if the industry is going to make money off of it and it seems politically correct at the time then whatever it is will be sold. The idea of passively selling to an audience, with Television as the medium, will continue until it stops making someone money.

References

1.     Saxe, Lauren. "Television Influences Fashion Trends." Indiana Daily Student. IU's Independent Student Newspaper, 21 Sept. 2014. Web. 23 Sept. 2014.

2.     Spiegel, Lynn. "The Suburban Home Companion: Television and the Neighborhood Ideal in Postwar America." (n.d.): n. pag. Print.