Posted by Guest
(Post 442110)
I'll try to explain it the best I can.
Take any information and/or entertainment medium such as magazines, television, internet or radio. They each have their own special appeal for various reasons. If you are a music lover, you might subscribe to a magazine called "Making Music." The job of this magazine is to create an atmosphere that will bring music lovers together with the makers and sellers of instruments, plus other related products and services. In other words, buyers and sellers are brought together.
Radio is much the same in that it too seeks to bring buyers and sellers together by creating a favorable atmosphere for whatever is is that it hopes to sell. And Rush is mainly responsible for creating the atmosphere on his show, for a target audience that is relatively young. So he frequently talks about things that he thinks younger people will be interested in. And when you have that target audience in place, the sellers to that group will show up too.
To create an atmosphere for the sale of products, he talks about a lot of different things like sports, electronic gadgets, computers, food etc. etc.. Even though he may not do all food commercials himself, it's his job to create an atmosphere that will bring certain buyers and sellers together.
It is in this endeavor that he either acts as a natural "self appointed" spokesperson or, if there's a contract, a payed spokesperson. Obviously, if there's a contract it will stipulate that he cannot talk about it. But, regardless of which form it takes, the effect is the same. He will be speaking to create an atmosphere conducive to the sale of certain types of food items. That makes him an industry spokesperson. Some might even say that he is part of the industry. After all where does the industry begin and end? At any rate, you can at least say that he is an extension of the industry.
Now, what types of food products? It's highly unlikely to be any whole food. So what's left? Processed foods, fast foods and restaurant food. All three of these can, and often do, overlap. To save time, I usually refer to all of it as "fast food."
So now the question is: How do you create an atmosphere conducive to selling fast (processed) foods? You ridicule those who are trying to be healthy. That plays well to their younger target audience. But he can't do that by itself. How would that look to those in his audience who may be older and more sensible? So he does it under the guise of ridiculing liberals. That way it serves a duel purpose and has double the appeal to his audience.
You may say that you don't recall a lot of foods being advertised. But, remember, his show is played in about 600 markets all around the country and advertising will varry from market to market. And they are always trying to attract more advertising revenue. To the extent that they don't attract industry advertisers, shows in various markets may be canceled.
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