Chris Farley is Dead and I Want to Know What He Said

DirecTV has been getting a lot of grief because its new TV commercial features Chris Farley, who has been dead for a dozen years.  (See Chris Farley DirecTV Ad Offensive?)

I have seen dead stars in TV commercials before so I don’t know what’s the big deal, but I will tell you what is REALLY offensive:  This commercial, like every DirecTV ad that has preceded it, IS NOT CLOSED-CAPTIONED.

It remains a huge mystery to me why advertisers will go to so much trouble and expense to create and air their commercials and yet will not add closed captions so that millions of audience members with hearing loss can understand what they are saying.

It is my hobby to send nasty emails to companies that don’t caption their ads.  I am long past the point of being nice to these people.  They work in the television industry and have a responsibility to know their job, including the importance of closed captioning.  I think they are ignorant dopes and what they do to us deaf people on an ongoing basis is offensive and outrageous and wrong.

The non-captioning of TV commercials is not just a nuisance, it is a blatant form of discrimination that limits deaf people’s knowledge and opportunities.  Consider Rochester, where two of the most incessant advertisers are a trade school and a law firm.  Do they not caption their ads because they are fools or do they not caption their ads because they do not want to be bothered with deaf people and interpreting expenses?

The worst non-captioner by far is Time Warner, which advertises all day on every channel.  Instead of setting a good example (after all, they could easily create a policy requiring all ads to be captioned) they do the exact opposite thing and convey the message that it is perfectly acceptable to not caption your ads and leave deaf people in the dark, even almost 20 years after the Americans with Disabilities Act was supposed to do away with this sort of thing.

You would be surprised how many times I have gotten commercials captioned just by sending an email.  I don’t understand why our advocacy organizations like the National Association of the Deaf don’t do something similar and put their weight behind it.  Why do they accept this ridiculous situation in mute compliance year after year after year?

Anyway, here is my correspondence with DirecTV over the last day or so.  I thought you might enjoy it.

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DirecTV:

I think it is disgusting that you don’t closed-caption your TV commercials.  You go to so much trouble and expense to create these commercials and buy air time, and you can’t bother to spend $200 to add closed-captions so that millions of viewers with hearing loss like myself can understand and enjoy them?  Unbelievable!

Closed-captioning has been around for almost 30 years, and all the programs I watch are closed-captioned (what would be the point otherwise?) but then your commercials come on and I am left in the dark, like it is the 1970s again.

I can’t believe your company can be so callous and ignorant toward deaf and hard-of-hearing people!

You are in the television business and should be setting a good example for others by making your stuff accessible, but instead you do the exact opposite thing by telling deaf people to go f**k themselves.  Really unbelievable!!!

Tom Willard
Editor, Deafweekly
www.deafweekly.com
Rochester, NY

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Mr. Willard, I’m a little confused here. Are you referring to commercial that are produced for DIRECTV that run industry wide or all commercials in general?

Charles Schrum
DIRECTV, Inc.

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Mr. Schrum:

I am talking about your own commercials for DIRECTV that feature remakes of old movies — I can never understand them because I am deaf and they are never closed-captioned.

Tom Willard
Rochester , NY

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Thank you for your clarification. I will pass this on to upper-management for their consideration.

Regards,
Charlie Schrum

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Thanks.  It never fails to amaze me that after 30 years of closed-captioning, people still have to “consider” whether or not to caption their ads.  This omission is especially egregious when committed by people who work in the television industry, who should be setting a good example for others and yet take the exact opposite approach.

I am going to push the FCC to require all commercials to be closed captioned, because to expose deaf people to non-captioned commercials is like making black people sit in the back of the bus.  It is blatantly discriminatory and enough is enough!!

Tom Willard
Rochester, NY