Mad Men shows contempt for hearing-impaired Americans

By hearing-impaired on September 18, 2008 1:00 PM
Any one curious as to why the producers, execs and director of Mad Men choose to
willingly disenfranchise millions of hearing impaired tv watchers - who use closed
captioning - from being able to watch Mad Men? If one notices, almost all
advertisers who use closed captions with their ads use upper case closed captions.
Why? Upper case closed captions can be read by all tv watchers who use cc's; this
includes those who can read the lower case cc's employed by less than a handful of
stations (National Geographic, which should know better; the Boston PBS station,
which should also know better than showing contempt for millions of viewers; and the
CBS and NBC "old-time" networks.)

Those tv watchers who can read lower case cc's are able to also read upper case
cc's, yet those who can't read the lower case (the writer of this entry is among the
millions in this category of cc'd users) rely on and can only read the upper case.
So what do the Mad Men producers and directors - and advertisers - get from their
decision to willfully and shamefully disenfranchise some millions of the 29 million
hearing impaired Americans from being able to enjoy this show?

For one, the advertisers lose and then some.

If you know ANYONE at all who is hearing impaired - from mild to severely, you could
do them a thoughtful and useful favo that'll take you just a minute: email some of
Mad Men's advertisers and ask them why they show contempt for people who don't hear
well.

Suggest start with the giant Pfizer Corp for your input on AMC and Mad Men's
contempt for American tv viewers who use closed captions to enjoy watching American
tv shows. Tell Ffizer they're losing millions of viewers with AMC and Mad Men's
closed captioning policies...maybe the AMC and Mad Men execs will become respectful
when their derision towards the hearing impaired hits them where it counts: the
American paycheck.

Click this url and fill in the blanks and send it off today:
Amehttp://www.pfizer.com/contact/mail_general.jsp

By hearing-impaired on September 18, 2008 1:00 PM
Any one curious as to why the producers, execs and director of Mad Men choose to
willingly disenfranchise millions of hearing impaired tv watchers - who use closed
captioning - from being able to watch Mad Men? If one notices, almost all
advertisers who use closed captions with their ads use upper case closed captions.
Why? Upper case closed captions can be read by all tv watchers who use cc's; this
includes those who can read the lower case cc's employed by less than a handful of
stations (National Geographic, which should know better; the Boston PBS station,
which should also know better than showing contempt for millions of viewers; and the
CBS and NBC "old-time" networks.)
Those tv watchers who can read lower case cc's are able to also read upper case
cc's, yet those who can't read the lower case (the writer of this entry is among the
millions in this category of cc'd users) rely on and can only read the upper case.
So what do the Mad Men producers and directors - and advertisers - get from their
decision to willfully and shamefully disenfranchise some millions of the 29 million
hearing impaired Americans from being able to enjoy this show?

For one, the advertisers lose and then some.
If you know ANYONE at all who is hearing impaired - from mild to severely, you could
do them a thoughtful and useful favo that'll take you just a minute: email some of
Mad Men's advertisers and ask them why they show contempt for people who don't hear
well.

Suggest start with the giant Pfizer Corp for your input on AMC and Mad Men's
contempt for American tv viewers who use closed captions to enjoy watching American
tv shows. Tell Ffizer they're losing millions of viewers with AMC and Mad Men's
closed captioning policies...maybe the AMC and Mad Men execs will become respectful
when their derision towards the hearing impaired hits them where it counts: the
American paycheck.

Click this url and fill in the blanks and send it off today:
Amehttp://www.pfizer.com/contact/mail_general.jsp

Wonder why the Mad Men producer and AMC execs show contempt for American tv viewers who use closed captioning? Millions do - and so do their advertisers. The reason advertisers who use upper case closed captions use those - and not the harder-or-impossible-to-read lower case which Mad Men uses - is simple: Upper case closed captions reach millions more tv viewers. There are at least 29 million hearing impaired folks in America - and a sizeable number of those rely on upper case closed captions for tv & movie watching. If you know of anyone who uses closed-captions to enjoy American tv shows, ask them to write Pfizer Corp, one of Mad Men's advertisers, and ask them to pull the plug on the ad revenue if Mad Men's exec producers continue using lower case closed captions. I myself have seen several newspaper reviews of Mad Men - they rave about it - but as I have but a mild hearing impairment- not hearing consonants easily - I am unable to watch this show. There are millions more like me and millions more with more - far more - serious hearing loss. And those millions will become a torrent of lost ad revenue asboomers continue to age and lose more hearing. Pfizer can be contacted easily, google them at pfizer corp and click on their contact link. Do something good for your - our - fellow Americans!