My son is twelve and a half. He’s growing up faster than I care for him to do. Besides being in the midst of a monstrous growth spurt for a couple of months now, he’s dealing with typical pre-teen issues. Adolescence. Things like girls, telephones, tv ratings and skin problems. Like many kids, he enjoys television. We have shows blocked off by rating, and I know what channels and shows he watches. He’s apparently been seeing a lot of acne solutions advertised and he hasn’t figured out yet that tv commercials often don’t represent the truth. One product he really wants me to get for him is Proactiv, because he keeps seeing the commercials.  I’m very hesitant to buy it because it’s pretty expensive and I’m skeptical. If any of you have personally used Proactiv I would appreciate hearing about if it worked or not.

What’s new? Four new shows were announced. they are Knight Rider, Kath & Kim, My Own Worst Enemy and Crusoe. What’s back? ER is coming back for one more season. It is the fifteenth season it will be on the air, and most likely it’s last. During the announcements it was learned that NBC will actually be running two seasons, fall and summer, in an effort to retain and gain viewers. The fall schedule looks like this:

Monday - My Own Worst Enemy, Chuck, Heroes
Tuesday -  Kath & Kim, The Biggest Loser: Families
Wednesday - Knight Rider, Lipstick Jungle
Thursday - SNL Thursday Night Live, The Office
Friday - Crusoe, Deal Or No Deal, Life

More shows will be added and changes made as winter sets in, but I haven’t read all of the info on that yet.

Not too long ago one of the Victoria’s Secret fashion shows was on. I believe it “happened” to be on the television three times while hubby was watching. Ummm yeas, that’s quite a coincidence. I was wondering something though. So many people watch those shows, both men and women alike. Men want them and women want to look like them. Why doesn’t Victoria’s Secret make a show exclusively for bridal lingerie? That would surely get lots of attention and grab a new piece of the television advertising market. What do you think? Good idea or bad?

Has anyone seen the new GoPhone commercial? It features Meatloaf singing his big hit Paradise By The Dashboard Light with changes to the lyrics just for GoPhone. I loved the song Paradise By The Dashboard Light, and it’s almost a guarantee that I will be singing along anytime I hear it on the radio or my iPod. Especially the Phil Rizzuto part. The woman in the commercial is Tiffany, who was a pop star back in the 80s. I’m not sure who the teenage boy is, but he has quite a resemblance to Meatloaf. Has anyone else seen this commercial? Were they as surprised as I was to see Meatloaf singing new words to his old hit?

I wondered this today. Back when the movie The Fast And The Furious came out, many people around here were street racing. Most of them were still just kids, ages 17-20 or so. Late at night they’d take their cars to the nearest wide highway, which was in the next town over, and race. Some kids got hurt. One or two died. The street racing continued. More movies came out. Most of the cars were foreign makes, but they all had car spoilers. A couple of years have gone by and I don’t see nearly as many of those cars anymore. I don’t see movies coming out loaded with street racecars. I’m glad, because the roads aren’t safe for anyone if kids are racing on them. But I did wonder, do people still street race?

We’re halfway through TV Turnoff week. I didn’t even know it was TV Turnoff Week until today. TV Turnoff Week runs from 04/21/08 through 04/27/08. Anyone anywhere, worldwide, is able and encourage to participate in this week long call to action. The goal of the week is to get as many people as possible to turn off their televisions and do something else. Did you know it was TV Turnoff Week?

Here in New Jersey the spring brings a whole new set of television commercials. The travel commercials. New Jersey has one, complete with a Bon Jovi track in the background. I also regularly see commercials for New York and Louisiana, and occasional spots for Florida. There are numerous ads for cruises, clubs located in other countries and the other countries themselves. But not much more for travel within the US. Never having visited much of the US I would be curious to see spots for places I’m interested in seeing, such as Texas, California and Vermont. And, I may live on the East Coast but there’s also still a number of places here I haven’t been and would like to go someday, such as the Carolinas, maybe for some Outer Banks rentals. Does your state have a tv commercial?

I don’t know if NBC paid President Bush for his appearance (ok, recorded message) on this week’s episode of Deal Or No Deal, but if they did they probably didn’t get their money’s worth. The President’s message to this week’s contestant, a US Army officer who’s done three tours in Iraq, was less than ninety seconds. The ratings for the Monday April 21 episode of Deal were the lowest they’ve ever had in that spot. The two-hour episode drew ten million viewers and had a 2.7 rating among adults 18-49, as well as a 7 share, down 27% from its prior season average. CBS won the night, followed by ABC and then NBC.

I’m sure by now you, like me, have noticed the abundance of commercials for “affordable” health insurance and term life insurance quotes. These commercials often say something costs as low as “x cents a day” but give you no real details and no idea of what fine print or qualifications that might be attached. What I’d like to see as a solution to this is a commercial that shows a price chart after stating its message. Let’s cut through the bull and get to the bottom line. What do you think? Would you find that type of tv advertising valuable?

Mariah Carey’s been around for a long time. One of my brothers has had a thing for her for as long as I can remember, and I’m talking years. I had the tv on the other day but wasn’t paying particular attention, and I looked up and Mariah was on my tv. She was in a Macy’s commercial, as were Carlos Santana, Donald Trump and Martha Stewart. I wondered what she was doing for Macy’s so I went online to see what I could learn.

The first thing I found out is that Mariah has her own perfume M, and that is why she was in the Macy’s commercial. The other thing I found out is that Mariah has a new album coming out called E=MC2. I found myself on the Walmart Soundcheck page where there is an almost ten minute interview with Mariah about the album and how she got to where she is today.

In the Soundcheck interview Mariah mentions she started singing when she was about four years old. She cites classical r&b artists as her biggest influences. I didn’t know that she began her career when she was in middle school, in seventh grade, as a backup singer. She discusses learning to enjoy performing and bettering herself while learning to produce. Mariah calls this album extremely diverse when it comes to the styles of songs on it, and said she had a lot of fun making it. The diversity is evident to anyone that listens to the five song samples included with the interview. Fans will definitely be interested in the part of the interview where she discusses each of the songs on the new album.

Mariah’s new album E=MC2 is on sale now.