Anti-TV activists to turn-off TVs worldwide
Last Updated Mon, 25 Apr 2005 10:41:56 EDT
CBC Arts


TORONTO - Your television may mysteriously switch off this week, as thousands of anti-TV activists disable sets worldwide for TV Turnoff Week.

Organizers of the annual event, which takes place April 25 through May 1 this year, have sold thousands of TV-B-Gone universal remote controls to colleagues around the globe.

Armed with these gadgets, activists organized by groups like Canada's Adbusters magazine, Britain's White Dot and the TV Turnoff Network in the U.S. will be able to switch off television sets within a seven-metre radius. The goal is to remove TV "pollution" from public spaces.

"We are going to be going into pubs and either turning off the TV and leaving information or asking people, 'I just turned off the television. Did you notice?'" White Dot spokesperson David Burke told Agence France-Presse in London.

"People may think it is intrusive for an anti-television campaigner to go into a [bar] and turn off the television, but a lot of people find the television intrusive."

The intention is not to disrupt patrons enjoying a sporting match or "to ruin everyone's good time," Burke said. "I'm happy to admit there's lots of good television. We're just saying you don't have to listen to television blaring in the corner of the room."

Other TV Turnoff Week events include picnics, music and art showcases, a "Smash Your Set" punk concert in Vancouver, a dramatized "TV zombie invasion" in New York and a street performance in Basel, Switzerland.

These and other TV Turnoff Week events are scheduled to take place in dozens of countries, also including Australia, Japan, Italy and Mexico.


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Turning off a TV should be voluntary, I think these activists better watch out, they might get a fist in their face.