Why is the Discovery Channel Promoting the Creation Museum?

I thought this was a promotional piece for an episode of MythBusters.

It’s not.

Discovery Channel ran an ad for the Creation Museum.

Or to put it another way: A science channel ran an ad that said the programming on that channel tells you lies.

Recently, one of our readers was watching Extreme Machines on the Science Channel with his son. The inevitable ads came on — and he saw an advertisement for the Creation Museum, the anti-science young-earth creationist museum.

…

Perhaps next month we’ll start seeing ads for the Flat Earth Society on their channels. Or maybe public service announcements on how children shouldn’t be immunized.

I hope this is a corporate commerical — one that Discovery had nothing to do with — but it’s still disturbing.

Did someone not notice the conflict?

Is FOXNews about to purchase a commercial spot on MSNBC?

Who at the Creation Museum thought it’d be a good use of the marketing budget to advertise specifically to people who disagree with you?

Joel

Who at the Creation Museum thought it’d be a good use of the marketing budget to advertise specifically to people who disagree with you?

Well, the ad has already gotten written up in several blogs for free. Maybe it will go viral. It’s genius!
Jeff Satterley

The ad has also been on TLC. Pissed me off while I was watching re-runs of Junkyard Wars this morning. Although with the other crap they put on TLC now, I don’t know exactly what anyone is learning from them anymore.
Aj

I can’t watch the Discovery Channel. The “suspense” added to events that just isn’t there, doesn’t actually create suspense, it just creates boredom. Documentaries repeating the same segments five times to fill the time like television for alzheimer’s sufferers. All the paranormal crap, that leads to the most gullible uncritical suggestions. Apparantly they replaced David Attenborough with Sigourney Weaver on Planet Earth, which I cannot understand at all.
Brian’s A Wild Downer

I’m hoping that by advertising on the Discovery Channel they’re wasting money by showing the ad to people who’ll know better.
Rob

I’d venture to guess that they advertising is being run by the cable company and not the Discovery channel. Cable gets a certain alotment of commercials and most of it is sold at regional levels.

I bet they know the demographic of folks that would watch Extreme Machines in a market and a desireable percentage would react to the creation museum. Just think of the demographic watching that silly 18 kid wacky cult family show.

Hmmmmm…. maybe we could get a Secular Coalition add to appear on TBN or the 700 Club. 🙂
Kaylya

Like pretty much any other network, Discovery & co is in it for ratings and ad revenue, not some pure-hearted quest to promote science. They have always (or at least for a long time) run series on things like the paranormal whose scientific basis is rather questionable. And Myth Busters is a perfectly fine show, but the fact that it’s one of the most “scientific” series on the network says something.

TLC, on the other hand, gave up all pretense of being educational years ago, and now goes by the tagline “Life Unscripted”. But Discovery isn’t really all that far behind.
Cassville Atheist

I’d probably guess that if the Creation Museum actually did intend for that add to be on discovery. That it would have something to do with preaching to the lost. Trying to gain converts if you will.
REX

Who at the Creation Museum thought it’d be a good use of the marketing budget to advertise specifically to people who disagree with you?

Christians aren’t really noted for being rational and logical deep thinkers right?

This seems pretty much in character to me.
Luther

Maybe the Creation Museum would take bus adds from atheists?

“Teach the facts, not the controversy”

“This bus runs on science”

“Believing Creation is a Mythstake”
Goliath

If the Creation Museum wishes to waste their own money by giving it to a cable company, that’s fine with me. Less money they have to come up with the garbage they have there.
Jen

Hold on guys, I have this one.

Why is the Discovery Channel promoting the Creation Museum?

For money.

Who at the Creation Museum thought it’d be a good use of the marketing budget to advertise specifically to people who disagree with you?

Anyone who has ever heard of controversy.

There! We can all go home now.
Thilina

Some of the paranormal shows they show on Discovery puts them on par with the Creation Museum.

And i really wouldn’t even be surprised if they started doing “Documentaries” on the place.
TJ

They are wanting and getting their fantasy fiction in science class in school, why not science channels on TV?

Of course, religious stations and shows must never make way for the other side of the “debate”. That’s blasphemy and cannot be tolerated!
littlejohn

Doesn’t the Discovery Channel run regular shows on hauntings and cryptozoology? What do you expect? The Mythbusters are fun, but you’ve got to sift through some real crap to get there.
Tony Boling

I feel I should interject right now that the channel in question has no bearing over who advertises with them. It’s a regional and provider decision.

I do advertising for our community theatre and I use Comcast for commercials since Comcast has the largest share in my area. I select certain channels that I want my spot to air on and specify the region that I want them to be shown. This is why you’ll see a different commercial in Atlanta Georgia while watching Shark Attacks with DirectTV than someone in Detroit watching the same show at the same time with Comcast or Dish Network.

Don’t be so quick to blame The Discovery Channel.
Richard Wade

Perhaps we should be asking why The Friendly Atheist website is “promoting” Scientology, Christianity, psychic services, fortune telling and all manner of World Wide Woo in the ads at the top of each page. The Googlebot seems to find buzz words in the post titles and text, and then mindlessly attaches any ad that has a close match. Is there no way to filter out certain sponsors that conflict with the purpose of this site? Or would that reduce the revenue, and so is not even considered? Make sure things are in order at home before pointing out the disorder at someone else’s place.
Stephan

Richard Wade said:

Perhaps we should be asking why The Friendly Atheist website is “promoting” Scientology, Christianity, psychic services, fortune telling and all manner of World Wide Woo in the ads at the top of each page.

Exactly. Add into the picture that the Discovery Channel could very well have a policy of non-discrimination on commercials and you probably have the answer.

More to the point…why SHOULDN’T they show them??? If some station runs a commercial for politician or group X do you really think they are endorsing them? Are we really going to ask Discovery Channel or anyone else to refuse to run commercials for group X because group X is a bunch of nutters?

Ask yourself this: why are 100+ atheists supporting the creation museum Aug. 7th? Should we be attacked or taken to task for it?
Miko

I seem to recall seeing a certain movie starring Ben Stein advertised on science channels as well. So they waste ad money; not a big deal in the scheme of things.
TheLoneIguana

I’ve not seen any such ads locally (central California, whose general population would eat up such tripe).
I’d be willing to give the Discovery Channel the benefit of the doubt- it might be a localized thing. I see it all the time, ads running for a second or two before being preempted by another (usually local) commercial.

Now the crackpots that run the History Channel are probably planning on at least three documentaries on the creation “museum” as we speak.
Ethos

Personally I would be more than happy to take the Creation Museum or the Discovery Institute’s money (or whomever is unwise enough to try and sell a figment of their imagination to people who know better). Certainly the Discovery Channel will have more productive uses for the dollars, even if that means yet another re-hashed examination of quantum/string theory featuring your favorite (and mine) theoretical physicist and futurist Michio Kaku.
samuel

the ‘science’ channel had commercials for homeopathic medicines.