Speaking at the Edinburgh International TV Festival, David Simon, the mastermind behind HBO’s critical darling The Wire, didn’t pull any punches when spouting his thoughts on advertising. His words in essence: Advertising kills TV.
Simon told the audience, “Television as a medium, in terms of being literate and telling stories, has short-changed itself since its inception. That is because of advertising.”
Of course, Simon had the benefit of having his show on HBO, where the “constraints of advertising” were a non-issue. The scribe in fact goes on to extol the virtues of premium channels, saying television before “was about the interruptions every 13 minutes to sell you cars and jeans and whatever else.”
Obviously this marketing paradigm has evolved dramatically into product placement within shows, but Simon contends that advertising of any kind compromises the story’s quality. “You had to bring the most number of eyeballs to that show and that meant dumbing down and making plots simple, gratifying people within the hour.”
Still, not everyone gets afforded 58 commercial-free minutes to develop a story. Maybe Simon’s just subtly shilling for TiVo.
Via BBC
More: “Shamevertising: Cheating Husband Brought to Awesome Justice”