• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, September 7, 2005

The Parents Television Council (PTC) should look at the immoral victories -- the moral ones don't seem to make sense. The PTC wants to blame Hardees' poorly performing Paris Hilton TV ad, which featured her soaping down a Bentley and herself before downing a burger, for the 1 percent decrease in the burger chain's sales.

It's a matter of perspective. Perhaps Hardees sales would have been down 15 percent if it hadn't been for the ad.

TV pressure groups -- religious or otherwise -- need some kind of feedback to draw attention to their protestations. If they can't glean some depressing news from some misread financial statements, then they need some reaction from letters or e-mails, which are usually gleaned from a company public relations person who graciously says the proper executives will be reviewing their suggestions.

Once in a while, TV pressure groups hit the jackpot; if perchance a senior executive just doesn't want to bother any longer, or his wife says, "I hate Paris Hilton," that ends that. The senior executive then pulls the advertising campaign or its sponsorship of a somewhat racy episode of "Gilmore Girls."

The PTC should be more like the PTA -- where all parents come to meet and hash out differences over why the swings in the playground swing too high and are dangerous or why the high school history class needs to examine the popular culture artifact of a 1950s Playboy magazine.

But don't waste my time talking about a Paris Hilton ad that, in effect, didn't raise sales of double cheeseburgers. All that means is that more creative advertising executives will need to come up with other ideas, like hiring Nicole Ritchie to do a KFC ad for mud wrestling and then crunching on chicken.