TV RULES

Satur Sulit

Advertisements on television
directed at children
are eminently dangerous
underhanded and insidious

They trick children’s attentions
and arouse their desires
then whelm them with products
to want their parents to buy

Held captive by the designs
of self-promoters and profiteers
their little minds are kidnapped
for ransom in patronage

It is an unchecked subversion
of parents’ prerogatives
to define the parameters
of their children’s upbringing

Their options are pre-empted
they are helpless against
the subliminal effects of
a medium that is the message

The effects are immediate
the children are hypnotized
they cannot tell the difference
between virtual and real

And soon they are weaned
from the rule of their parents
their fancied lives but a mirage
of illusions for sale