Thursday 5 May 2005

Texas Bill Banning Cheerleading Causes Panic, Confusion and Exodus

Teens Flee State By Thousands, Causing Gridlock; See Bill As Ban On Being Teen

The Texas House of Representatives approved a bill on Monday, by a vote of 65 to 56, that would allow state education officials to prohibit "overtly sexually suggestive" cheering and drill team routines.

And, as news of the bill reached schools, teenagers began fleeing the state by the scores-of-thousands, causing virtually total gridlock on the Texas Highway System.

Roads leading out of Texas into New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana were jammed with automobiles packed with young teenagers. Texas Governor Rick Perry activated the National Guard and officials in the surrounding states were mobilizing resources to handle the immense influx of teenagers.

Many of the teens were loud and boisterous, some openly drinking beer and smoking marijuana.

"They're trying to kill our teen years", shouted one young girl.

"Sexy cheerleaders is what high school is all about", shouted a teen boy, wearing his football jacket.

The legislation was sponsored by Representative Al Edwards, a Houston Democrat and ordained minister, who attempted to add a rider that schools would lose state funding for permitting "racy" routines. Edwards once offered a bill that would allow the state to amputate the fingers of convicted drug dealers.

The bill followed heated debate about cheerleading, and the alleged influence of popular culture on young cheerleaders, notably, the legendary and often scantily-clad Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders.

Supporters of the bill cited provocative dances seen on television shows, like MTV, as well as movies, such as "Bring It On" and it's sequel, "Bring It On Again." Those against the bill argued it wasn't up to the state to decide what was "lewd" or "overtly sexual", pointing to the hard work, talent needed and skill involved in cheerleading.

Ironically, Dallas, Texas is the home of the National Cheerleaders Association, founded in 1948, which conducts cheerleading camps and competitions around the country.

"We believe it's a very small minority of cheerleaders, not the 98 percent who do things right, that are being noticed at the suggestive level," said Karen Halterman, vice president for marketing at the association. "We've already been looking into this thing, since our focus has been not just on technical skills but on grooming tomorrow's leaders."

Though the bill does not yet have a sponsor or support in the Texas Senate, the teenagers, en masse, decided that they didn't want to wait around.

"First cheerleading, then they'll probably make us wear uniforms to school", offered one teen, fleeing to New Orleans.

The Governor's office had no official statement as of Wednesday and has given no indication if he would veto the bill if it does pass in the Senate.

One staff member, speaking unofficially and anonymously, indicated it wasn't just the jammed highways that was the focus of the Governor but the state's economy as well.

"Who's going to be serving the hamburgers and shakes? … We have some many sectors effected by this … Caddies at the golf courses … Movie theatre ushers…"

"Heck, if they stay away, and we loose the Fall football season, that's millions down-the-drain".

One teen, shouting as his auto was crossing over the border into Oklahoma;

"They want to stop us from being teenagers …"


DIY Network Has An Ad Campaign - Finally

Three-Years-Plus in-the-making; All Hand-Made Print Run

When you call yourself the DIY Network, and you want to run an advertising campaign, you can't pick up the telephone and call and agency. You have to roll-up your sleeves and get the job done yourself.

It took over three-years, but the DIY Network, the Scripps Network-owned cable program, has finally finished their first advertising creative, a print campaign that will begin running in the network's major areas of programming concentration (Home Improvement, Gardening, Woodworking, Auto, and Crafts).

To promote one of DIY's five annual sweepstakes, a full-page ad will capture a do-it-yourselfer engrossed in a project and a one-third page strip that appears opposite the full-page ad advertising the sweepstakes.

The DIY Network, along with the cable program, has a website with over 15,000 DIY projects and advice from DIY experts, and offers a newsletter with DIY projects, program and sweepstakes information.

DIY executive officers, as well as the television staff and crew all worked on creating the ad, according to a source close to the show.

"There were a lot of false starts, ups-and-downs … I mean, they didn't know B-Roll from a coffee roll … The first few cuts at it, it looked like stick people drawn by a preschooler".

Reportedly, the DIY staff, living up to it's name, created everything to do with the ad, by themselves.

One group was sent out to the Pacific Northwest to cut down a tree and process it for the paper they would need. Another group worked in a lab to create barrels of ink. Others took night courses, to learn copy and creative writing.

This took tedious amounts of time and the executives at Scripps, who ordered the ad campaign, were growing impatient. Tension between DIY and Scripps grew, as one-year rolled into another, with no ad copy or creative to show.

Still more staffers spent massive amounts of time in libraries and on the internet, to research ad rates and submission policies.

Once the materials were ready, the DIY crew built a replica ad agency office, to help get them in the spirit. This included a lounge, with a hand-made pool table, fully-tiled sauna room and a small kitchen.

Other material needed were provided by sponsors, in exchange for on-air credit and advertising, once a staffer read in a marketing newsletter that such transactions were commonplace.

About three-months into their fourth-year, they produced what will be used for the campaign run.

With the tagline, "This is my masterpiece. This is my network", the ad will run in Better Homes and Gardens, Cottage Living, Family Handyman, Handy, Midwest Living, Southern Living and This Old House.