The recently introduced Reduction in Distribution of Spam (Rid Spam) Act of 2003 doesn't do much to stop the sheer volume of unsolicited offerings. Instead, it seeks to punish spammers who lie in their messages (as if the Federal Trade Commission didn’t already take a dim view of deceptive advertising practices).
As a result, marketers that have established relations with their customers will still find their e-mail pitches buried under dozens of unsolicited messages.
Now that this flaw-laden bill has been introduced, there is nothing left to do but find a scapegoat. And I favor placing responsibility on the same scourge that has been held accountable for juvenile delinquency, teen pregnancy and an increase in voter apathy.
I blame television.
House co-sponsors Billy Tauzin (R-LA) and James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) were born in the same year – in fact, on the same day: June 14, 1943. A little math reveals that in 1955, when they were waiting for their voices to drop, they were caught up in television’s golden age.
Just as radio had provided mass advertising to an earlier generation, television offered untargeted sponsored electronic messaging to millions of recipients. A glance at 1955’s primetime lineup yields The Colgate Variety Hour, Goodyear TV Playhouse, Pontiac Presents, Texaco Star Theater, Coke Time, Schlitz Playhouse of Stars and Kraft Television Theater, among others.
Much in the same way excessive amounts of television violence supposedly hardens today’s viewers to real-life violence, Tauzin and Sensenbrenner’s television habits may have left them blind to the impact a plethora of advertising has on today’s consumers.
The boob tube was also a likely source of Tauzin and Sensenbrenner’s urge to round up miscreants. Joining sponsor-named shows on 1955’s TV schedule were a host of Western programs. It’s easy to imagine the preteen Sensenbrenner and Tauzin absorbed in Gunsmoke, Frontier, and The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, as they clutch forgotten grape Nehis.
In the fall of 1955, these programs appeared for the first time, joining a schedule already dominated by The Lone Ranger, among other Western-themed shows. Could these two legislators be acting against phony Viagra solicitors based on a subconscious desire to emulate Marshal Matt Dillon?
Even Rep. Richard Burr (R-NC), whose name also sits atop the bill, is not immune to television’s law ‘n’ order influence. Burr was 12 in 1967, when the highest-rated program was The Andy Griffith Show, which starred Andy Taylor as the sheriff of Mayberry. Bonanza and Gunsmoke were also among the top 10.
In 2003, Clayton Moore, television’s Lone Ranger; Amanda Blake, Gunsmoke’s Miss Kitty; and Lorne Greene, Bonanza’s Ben Cartwright, are dead.
But Sensenbrenner, Tauzin and Burr have taken their place. Even if some of their bullets fly a bit wide of the mark.
To respond to the opinions in this column, please contact rlevey@primediabusiness.com
