farmdoc's blog post number 159

Life. Be in It™ is a marketing campaign introduced in 1975 to tackle the fact that Australia is a nation of slobs. The campaign’s star character is Norm. Recent research is unclear as to whether or not Australia leads the world in obesity. But either way, we’re right up there with the biggest of them. Life. Be in It™ is no longer in the media forefront, but judging by its website it’s still going and active. Despite Norm and his campaign, Australians (and Americans for that matter), seemingly prefer to go through life not as participants but spectators. Which may well explain the appeal and popularity of reality television. I’m aware of programs including Big Brother, Australian Idol, Survivor and Backyard Blitz. I don’t have or watch television and so I’ve not viewed even a minute of reality TV. But I oppose these programs on principle because their vicarious surrogacy, and at times frank voyeurism, is psychologically unhealthy. The Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv reinforced this recently: Its editors suggested that instead of contestants ‘The tribal council of the community of viewers should oust those who have inflicted this blight of reality on us’, and they urge ‘The dismissal – every week – of the director, the chairman or the head of programming, and whoever insulted our intelligence and contaminated our collective soul…’ Hear hear. Eh, Truman.