Television Preview

Right at this very moment, I could be taking advantage of an exciting offer "to participate in a survey whose findings will directly influence what you see on television in the future." A couple weeks ago, I received tickets in the mail from a company called Television Preview. Their introductory letter explains that they present "screenings of pre-recorded 1/2 hour television segments (including programs and commercials) to groups of people across the country. The groups evaluate what they see, and Television Preview tabulates and analyzes these evaluations. Then, we pass them along to the people who decide whether the material will be televised."

It sounded like it could be an interesting experience. As I considered who might like to attend the screening with me, I did a little research, and I'm glad I did. The company's website is intentionally vague, but it didn't take much digging to get to the truth. It's a scam.

Apparently, the programs they show are pilot episodes of rejected television series, some well over ten years old. The programs are mere filler, designed to distract people from the company's true goal, which is to gauge viewer reactions to the commercials and to extract direct marketing information. The real information that the company gathers comes from the questionnaires that attendees fill out before and after seeing the ads. This isn't exactly a new trick, either - they've been at it since the early 1970s. They may have been able to fool people before, but now the Internet can save gullible people like me who might otherwise fall for their ruse. Thank you, Internet!

Here's what some attendees had to say about their experiences.

Monty Ashley:

The first thing they had us do was go through a booklet of "prizes" and circle the ones we most wanted to receive. This process was very similar to picking your favorite brand of peanut butter, nail polish, and cake frosting, so it was pretty clear that they were going to show us commercials in what they called a "natural viewing environment", assuming you always watch television in a darkened hotel conference room, surrounded by strangers.

You will be shut into a dingy hotel conference room for two hours. The room will be filled almost entirely with retirees and you will spend the better part of the evening straining to see a cheap television set, in what will be termed a "natural viewing environment". A semi-literate 'host' will read from a script, loosing his place now and then and will forget to ask "What is your name?" as an audience volunteer helps with a fake prize draw.

"The whole set-up is that they're there to evaluate the programming. We try not to cue them to the advertising, because we like it to be an incidental exposure."

"I felt like a lowlife going to that thing. It was really embarrassing, kind of like if you buy something off an infomercial and think it's going to be cool, and then you get it and it's a piece of crap. It seemed like a big hoax."

Be aware of something else: telemarketers. According to a couple of accounts online, a few days or so after they attended the presentation they were contacted by phone by someone wanting to sell them something that was advertised during those pesky commercial breaks.