p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }
Cable network E! has been receiving perhaps more free publicity than it wants for a change, thanks to recent viewer fury over its show, Keeping Up With the Kardashians. A petition posted on GoPetition.com called “No More Kardashian,” launched on Nov. 4 by a Denver-based woman named Cyndy Snider, demands that E! stop airing the show. As of Nov. 18, the petition has about 150,000 signatures.
In a statement, Snider explained, “We feel that these shows are mostly staged and place an emphasis on vanity, greed, promiscuity, vulgarity and over-the-top conspicuous consumption.” She also emphasized that young people look up to the family as role models. “I’ll remind you here that the Kardashian family fame largely started with a ‘leaked’ sex tape.”
On a parallel track, a Facebook page called "Boycott the Kardashians" has nearly 54,000 likes. Commenters on the Facebook page are targeting the show's sponsors as well as E!.
It may all seem like fun and games at the moment to E!, but the hating is primed to intensify, and the network is bound to have to make a statement sooner or later. Better sooner—inserting itself into the conversation now is a must before the criticism begins to be reflected in the network's ratings. If Occupy Wall Street has taught us anything so far, it's that there is a bottomless well of anger in the populace, and that anger is looking for more targets.