Andy's appearance on Thinking Allowed (see below) was about things like 'Authenticity' and politicians, with particular reference to Boris Johnson. At the same time I was reading Interface by Neal Stephenson and found this quote about TV and authenticity. It's from a speech by a character who makes campaign commercials for politicians:
"Americans may be undereducated, lazy, and disorganized, but they do one thing better than any people on the face of the earth, and that is watch television. The average 8-year old American has absorbed more about media technology than a goddam film student in most other countries. You can tell lies to them and they’ll never know. But if you try to lie to them with the camera, they’ll crucify you.”
(Obviously I'd like to dissociate myself from opinions about American's being undereducated and lazy.)
I think this is why so much TV advertising rings false. People who tend to make bad commercials don't really understand that there are so many nuances and so much attention to detail required to make a piece of film convincing, especially when it's as densely packed as a TV ad. And people's understanding of its 'truth' or otherwise isn't at an intellectual level - it's certainly not at a level they can articulate in research - it's just something they feel because they've internalised so much of the grammer and conventions of TV.
Completely agree
Posted by: Ben | October 15, 2005 at 10:42 AM