Hawkers on the Road to Perdition

I hardly watch the Fox News Channel, but today while browsing channels I ran into Glenn Beck when he was predicting all gloom and doom. Sitting partially hidden behind a huge pile of papers - the new Govt Health care bill, he spoke about how about this new administration was determined to fundamentally change America by building a bigger government, piling up the national debt, promoting socialism and redistribution of wealth, and destroying the dollar. What stood out and caught my attention were the commercials that punctuated the show. All the talk of death, decline and destruction were followed by repeated commercials of companies like Rosland Capital and Goldline telling people how the huge government spending and Wall street bail outs were eroding the dollar and urging them to invest in Gold. Behind them in the parade were companies like Life lock telling people how insecure their identities were and how identity thieves could ruin their lives. Close on their heels were the Home Security companies encouraging viewers to buy their services and save themselves from home invasions.

I do not recollect the commercials that appeared on TV during a program on CNBC last week when Warren Buffet and Bill Gates addressed the students of Columbia Business School. Mr.Buffet, after talking about his $34 Billion investment in Burlington Northern, declared that "You cannot bet against America and hope to win." I am a certain that the optimistic vibes of that program would have been leveraged by commercials of companies like GE (Renewable energy), Vestas (Wind Power)..etc

Isn't it interesting to see how a program's disposition is reflected in the nature of the commercials that it interleaves ?