How could a television channel ostensibly dedicated to reassuring bromides about family and home promote crooks, when its executives should know better? Look no further than TLC’s program, Extreme Couponing, for an answer and a sign of the times.
Here is a case in point. In 2011, an episode of the show featured a minor using counterfeit coupons to acquire, free of charge, over 400 rolls of toilet paper. The store featured in the show as cashing the coupons for the minor experienced a rude awakening when Quilted Northern refused to pay for the phony coupons. Ultimately, the mother of the minor in the show ended up repaying the store for all the items that the youngster had “bought” in a display of alleged finesse with making frugal use of coupons. TLC, however, thought little of setting the record straight or of taking positive action to dissuade – or even acknowledge – such fraud. A coupon industry watchdog known for defending against fraud offered TLC free expertise to assist show producers with avoiding such fiascoes, but TLC staff ignored multiple offers. Details are available on this page of the Coupon Information Corporation’s web site, http://www.couponinformationcenter.com/extremecoupon.php , and at http://moneyland.time.com/2012/02/20/are-the-money-saving-strategies-on-extreme-couponing-bogus/]
Meanwhile, TLC continues to foster questionable practices like the foregoing by unabatedly chanting the kind of fraud-promoting hymn that any con-artist would love:
“Extreme Couponing follows savvy shoppers as they plan and plot their way to unbelievable savings. Witness amazing shopping skills and shocking stockpiles of merchandise, as everyday people go to extremes in pursuit of extraordinary deals.”
[Details are at http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/tv/extreme-couponing ]
Under the circumstances, it should come as small surprise that TLC even stages some of the ostensibly real interchanges between its coupon-slinging protagonists and fellow shoppers who end up being production company stooges expressing emotions on cue. [Details are at http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sc-cons-0421-frugalista-coupon-fraud-20110426,0,2329448.story ] Another coupon aficionado, drawing the line at illegal activity, points out how one of the featured TLC show’s stars was consistently using coupons issued for more expensive products on cheaper products, thereby getting away with an artificial discount that exploits a flaw in some coupon handling systems. [Details are at http://savingmoneyplan.com/ethics-extreme-couponing-readers-spot-problems/ ]
More searches along these lines reveal that some stores featured on the show violate their own protocols by doubling or tripling the value of coupons – only as long as the Extreme Couponing cameras are filming. When regular patrons ask about the practice, the stores’ managers refuse to double any other coupons, claiming that the TLC show represented a special, one-time promotion.
What messages do TLC and programs like Extreme Couponing convey?
• Cheating is OK if it makes you look good.
• Faking “reality” is acceptable if it fulfills other, promotional goals.
• Boorish behavior attains social acceptability if it can be shown to turn a profit.
What are the latent lessons worth mining out of this mess?
• Anything that looks too good to be true is too good to be true, whether in dating, international diplomacy, or coupon exploitation.
• Reality shows, lacking the benefit of worthy script, plot, or character, exist by highlighting extremes. The more reprehensible, the more eye-catching.
• Nothing is more communicable than bad taste. This does not, however, turn the stench of fraud into the perfume of legitimate achievement.
No wonder TLC has abandoned its original full name, The Learning Channel, in favor of its three-letter, current identity of TLC. There is no learning to boast of in programs such as Extreme Couponing. Try Losing Customers may become the way this network is remembered by future generations.
– Nick Catrantzos
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Nick Catrantzos + Tom Goff
- All Secure
- NICK CATRANTZOS is the lead author of the All Secure website and is the emeritus security director for a large public organization. He has also managed security aspects of corporate takeovers, response to international hostage situations, and finding and keeping secrets. He has been board certified in security management, licensed as a private investigator, and certified as an incident commander. He worked as a case officer for a discreet branch of public service. He protected stealth technology at Lockheed and, later, as a consulting security director for both Kroll and Control Risks, he assisted executives with workplace violence cases and with protecting VIPs and critical assets globally in volatile areas. Nick's partner, TOM GOFF, was a captain in the Military Police Corps, U.S. Army Reserve and has a law degree from the University of California at Davis. He is a former reporter for Fortune Magazine, was senior editor at New York Magazine and Esquire, and has provided crisis and communications counsel to senior executives at Fortune 500 companies, including Lockheed, ARCO, Microsoft, Nissan, and Sony Pictures.