THE MAYOR OF TELEVISION.

Byline: David Kronke's blog and podcast

TV Turnoff Week is coming -- but can we get a pass for 'Heroes'?: The anarchic hippies over at Adbusters have launched an assault on Your Mayor and the Good People of Television, scheduling their annual TV Turnoff Week for the week of April 23. The week "Heroes" returns for its final episodes of the season, for crying out loud. The NBA playoffs are beginning, for heaven's sake. (And I hear there'll be a very special episode of "The New Adventures of Old Christine," as well!)

To encourage everyone to play along, the Adbusters folks have created some -- yes -- TV commercials (go to http://adbusters.org/metas/psycho/tvturnofLine is overdrawn f/#) imploring viewers to snap off their sets. So they're using the medium of television to excoriate the medium of television (that's usually the job of "According to Jim"). Which makes sense 7/8 in order to reach your target audience, you have to speak their language (no point advertising elsewhere than television, because the people receiving those messages already aren't watching TV). ABC, unsurprisingly, has already turned down the ads.

One of the ads features the faces of a bunch of slack-jawed kids gazing vacantly, presumably at a television, while Philip Glass arpeggios mourn the deaths of still more once-fertile minds. Another doesn't quite make as much sense: A guy wearing a TV on his head (at least I think it's supposed to be a TV) is buffeted about by troubling news reports. This spot actually seems contradictory, or at least not quite on-message: Are the Adbusters telling us to ignore what's going on in the world during that week, as well? If they wanted to convey their scheme more effectively, they should've had the guy's head being knocked about by lame sitcom one-liners and laugh tracks and reality-show lines like "You've been voted off the island" and melodramatic dialogue like "I'm pregnant 7/8 and it's both of your babies!"

And here I am, telling my avowed enemies how they should do their job. Well, you know what they say: Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. And, as a dedicated politico, Your Mayor can't afford the luxury of many friends, I have plenty of room to huddle with enemies.