Ignore them and they'll go away

Okay, so I have never seen the television show “Jersey Shore.” Furthermore, I never plan on watching said show, and I don’t know anybody who does. That being said, that show has been getting so much attention that it makes me sick. For all that everyone claims that it’s awful reality TV at its worst (and it is) someone has to be watching it for it to stir up so much controversy. I’ve heard people bashing it on NPR, and found articles about it in the New Yorker and in the New York Times. (For example: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/fashion/31jersey.html?scp=1&sq=jersey%20shore&st=cse and http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/fashion/14frontrow.html?scp=3&sq=jersey%20shore&st=cse.) I think I can see why people continue to talk about it—it allows the person listening to the show or reading the article to feel superior, to go “well, I know better than the rest of those people who watch this garbage.” And, admittedly the show has been somewhat controversial—people are upset about the negative way they feel it portrays Italian-Americans. But I have to ask: if we’re so disparaging of this show and everything it represents, why do we continue talking about it? It’s just giving it more publicity, and I’m pretty sure that in this case the producers would assume that “any publicity is good publicity.” Shows like this only exist because someone out there thinks people are going to watch it. So the best way to make this go away is to ignore it, not complain about it. Is it an awful representation of shallow American consumerism at its worst? I would say so. But to people who enjoy trash-talking this show and feeling superior, think about what you’re doing. In my opinion, we shouldn’t be giving the “stars” of this show any more attention than they’ve already received. By ignoring them we can allow them to fade into obscurity and leave us alone, and stop spreading the message that it’s okay to act like they do.
A note: I realize I am being somewhat hypocritical in that I am, in fact talking about the show. But I just wanted to get my point across, and trust me; I’m planning on forgetting that this show ever existed as soon as I possibly can. Oh, and if you are lucky and have no idea what this show is about, here’s some info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_Shore_(TV_series)