Family Ties

At a time when so many American companies are trying simply to stay afloat, it’s reaffirming that two of the biggest and most successful of those companies have our well-being in mind – and are willing to pay ginormous bucks to back that up.

According to an article in The Wall Street Journal, Walmart and Procter & Gamble have taken it upon themselves to develop TV programming that will not only (they hope) be entertaining but will also promote those American values they both feel are missing from today’s airwaves. The Journal reports that the two multi-billion-dollar marketing behemoths are joining forces on a made-for-TV show, “Secrets of the Mountain,” to be shown in April on NBC. The Journal says it’s “an effort to promote ‘family-friendly’ alternatives to what they say is increasingly risqué TV fare.”

The Journal says the story – about a single mother who brings her family to a mountainside cabin – “highlights values, such as generosity, honesty and togetherness, that Walmart and P&G executives say are in short supply on television.”

A couple of random thoughts, though maybe this is just me: Why a mountainside? (Presumably it’s a mountainside that already has a Super Walmart.) If American cities are so full of evil, why has Walmart tried so hard to build a store in many of them?

And why all these single mothers? Both companies are part of the Alliance for Family Entertainment, which, in 1999, helped fund the “Gilmore Girls,” the series on the WB network about a young single mother and her teenage daughter. If you’re promoting “family entertainment,” what ever happened to the rest of the family? Just asking.

This is familiar territory for P&G, which is spending more than $4.5 million to produce the film, according to The Journal, and is also paying for airtime for the broadcast. Procter has been one of the entertainment industry’s biggest sponsors and program developers, beginning in the early days of radio. (Where, of course, the “soap” in “soap opera” came from.)

It’s familiar territory for Walmart, too, whose investment includes a sizable fee for the right to be “presenting sponsor.” The Journal reports that the movie “is part of a broader effort by the retailer, dubbed ‘Walmart’s Family Moments,’ to foster more such entertainment.”

Both companies say they’re turned off by what’s on TV these days, have stepped up scrutiny of the shows that get their ad dollars and have been asking TV executives to offer more-wholesome programming. I don’t know. Who’s defining “wholesome”? I just watched “the bachelor” climb into a hotel “fantasy suite” bed with three different women (separately) on his way to making a decision about getting married for the rest of his life to women who say they want to have his baby. That would seem pretty family-affirming.