We here at Kill The Bug do not have any great urge to make viewers watch better-quality programming. Besides, the guilty pleasures of watching crap are sometimes not to be denied. But if we are going to indulge in such visual pleasuring, why must it include the presence of an offensive bug (logo) in the lower right corner of the screen (some have creatively moved them to other corners or seemingly random locations). When was it decided that programs and movies should constantly be violated by placing the logo of the network or cable channel in the corner except when ads or self-serving promos are running?
At first these were discrete, semi-transparent icons showing up for a dozen seconds during a program. Then these logos became more-or-less permanent presences, lurking obscurely over light-colored backgrounds until a darker hue made them glaringly obvious. It was as if content providers deemed it essential that couch potatoes know precisely on what station they were discarding hours of their lives—now gone forever.
Some network and cable channels have taken another step on the road to aesthetic oblivion by using larger logos to ensure that programming content does not draw attention away of them. Colors, animation and other enhancements have been added to bugs because the marketing departments apparently can't or won't believe viewer loyalty results from better content. Do directors of photography (DPs, for insiders) now carefully frame each scene with these nasty little pieces of visual clutter in mind?
There are those who claim that the sexual content of television shows and movies, and the images of women in music videos, have warped the psychosexual development of America's youth, but we are far more concerned with the effects of those loathsome bits of shill art always present in the corner of the screen. Will movie studios place their logos in the corner of the silver screen without fear of criticism from the X- and Y-gens? These days everything but life itself is sponsored by someone, with logos clearly displayed.
Screen clutter may be the next great social problem if this trend toward commercial intrusion is allowed to go unchecked. The adage that less is more is clearly not embraced by those who are entrusted to provide the content for the growing number of cable channels. It's time to insist that the promised 500-channel cable systems (is this really a good idea?) do not end up just being 500 places to violate the lower right-hand corner of our view of the world.
Are you irritated enough to write to those who commit these visual atrocities and then expect us to pay for the privilege of looking at them? If so, Click Here for addresses and e-mail addresses where you can let them know of your displeasure.
In the five years Kill The Bug has existed, the bugs have proliferated and morphed into a variety of logos, promos and graphics all sharing space during programs -- sitcoms, movies, sleazy "reality" shows and all the other drivel we are offered. Those of you who took the time and effort to comment and complain to networks and cable channels discovered how little these broadcast companies care -- largely because the overall viewing public is apathetic about these visual intrusions.
So, it should come as no surprise that the same viewing public is unmoved by the buying of names for public buildings and public places. The rampant increase in commercialization of all aspects of life -- such as renaming sporting events and venues -- has occured because most people really don't care and are themselves willing participants in such commercialism. All of which is to say, the bugs have taken over and will be with us until our culture is reduced to whatever money can buy. The 10 perecent who care have no chance against the 90 percent who don't.
Let them know
When it was originally noted that no one had ever gone broke underestimating the taste of the American public, television wasn't even a concept. And yet, as we near the end of the century that spawned television and the industry that surrounds it, there is little doubt that seeking the lowest common denominator in broadcasting is a sure pathway to money. This is no news to anyone who can operate a remote control or has seen professional wrestling.
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