Hannibal & Kraft: Macabre Messages – avoid both

By: American Decency Staff

I recall a musical piece from my days as a violinist in high school orchestra entitled “Danse Macabre” by French composer Camille Saint-Saëns.

"Danse Macabre" is based upon an old French superstition where “Death” calls the dead from their graves to dance for him while he plays his fiddle.  The skeletons dance for him until dawn breaks.  In the composition you hear an eerie theme of a solo violin representing “Death’s” fiddle, with a xylophone representing the bones.  The hauntingly beautiful piece builds and crescendos, ending pianissimo as the “skeletons” return to their graves.

The macabre has long been a theme of different art forms.  In some cases, such as this piece of music, one may appreciate the art in spite of the bizarre “inspiration” for the composition.  However, there are also those who falsely claim that all “art” must be accepted as “art for art’s sake” and that anything one wishes to classify as art must be labeled as such.

That is the case with NBC’s sickening show, “Hannibal.”  Reviewers laud the show’s “artistry” as the most gruesome images of mutilated and dismembered bodies are shown on network television.  Writers describe the show as “beautifully grotesque” and “artistic.” 

However, “Hannibal” is not artistry; it’s depravity.

In the most recent episode Hannibal, the cannibalistic serial killer, dismembers one of his victims while keeping him alive and forces the victim to eat his own flesh.  Such horrific scenes are graphically depicted each week on this NBC show!

Even knowing how far we have fallen as a culture, it is shocking that such content is airing on network television.

“Hannibal” continues to gain very poor ratings – the latest episode was down 20% from the previous episode – gaining an abysmal rating share of just 0.8 with 2.3 million viewers (compared to 11.4 million CBS viewers and 6.3 million ABC viewers for the same timeslot.)

However, a number of mainline advertisers continue to sponsor the show – including Kraft Foods – a company which puts forth a family image and is dependent upon American families for most of their business.

One of our readers, after responding to one of our “take action” alerts to contact the advertisers of “Hannibal,” received a reply from Kraft Foods which states in part:

“Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts about our advertisement placement on “Hannibal”.  There’s nothing more important to us than giving you high-quality products and marketing them responsibly and sensibly at all times.

For that reason, we are sorry to hear that you were unhappy with one of our sponsorship choices.  By way of background, we take great care when developing our advertising to be sure it creates awareness and excitement – and never offends.  We take this same care when choosing our sponsorships.  While we realize that not every television show appeals to every one, we do our best to choose high-quality programming with family appeal and entertainment value.   …

What an incredible response!  Take a look at that again.  Kraft claims to “take great care” to “never offend” and that they choose programming with “family appeal.”

Ignoring the fact that a show where human body parts are gruesomely prepared and served as haute cuisine may not be the best place for a food company to advertise macaroni and cheese or Jell-o, if Kraft is going for a show with “family appeal” I don’t think parents are choosing "Hanibal" to sit down and watch with their children.

Let Kraft know that you are “offended” with their sponsorship of “Hannibal” and if Kraft considers such a show as having “family appeal,” your family has lost appeal for Kraft.

Click here to send a specific message to Kraft.

However, Kraft is not the only sponsor of this repugnant show.  The advertisers which sponsored the most recent episode are listed below. 

Click here to send a message to all the sponsors of NBC ‘s “Hannibal.”

Advertisers include:

Kraft – Jell-O
Olive Garden
Target stores
Oxi-Clean
Allegra – Chattem, Inc.
Nasacort – Chattem, Inc.
Abreva
Verizon – Samsung Galaxy
T-Mobile
Geico
Microsoft
Xfinity (Comcast)

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American Decency Association is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.

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photo credit: josebermudes via photopin cc

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