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• Friday, August 15, 2008 09:51 AM

  It's all about target markets

  When Laci Peterson went missing, the biggest media push that her disappearance got BY FAR was on the morning news programs (they of the cooking demonstrations and lightweight celeb interviews). The explanation was that Laci was young, white, nearly a mother, pretty, and upper-middle-class--exactly the demo that the morning news programs were after.

  Race is not the only thing Elizabeth Smart et al have in common; they all come from economically comfortable to well-off families, people that others either relate to or aspire to be. I have to think that poor white children disappear too, but they don't provide a chance to show off the four-bedroom house in the leafy suburb where she was snatched or the vacation in South Beach that turned into a nightmare for this family.

  The producers figure that their target demographic (read: white, wealthy SAHMs) can't relate to these stories (the unspoken message is that they won't relate to anyone different than they are) so the stories get cut. Sadly, they'll call the focus on some children and not others a business decision.

  My comments are all about the marketing today...

  —Lulu Lulu Read Lulu Lulu's other letters
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