Tornadoes and Marketing

This has been the worst tornado season on record. It has also been the most widely viewed tornado season on record. Social networking, Doppler radar, In the filed Tornado Hunters, and live casts mean that knowledge of where tornadoes are is available like never before. Yesterday, I was glued to an all day live cast from Oklahoma; I was thunderstruck. I couldn't help but think how many countless lives were saved as the forecaster could warn towns and cities with enough time for the people in the path to get to safety.

Thank you to the news channel 4 team who followed the storms every movements for hours and to the chasers in the filed who risked their lives to ensure that we knew where the tornadoes were.

I was also struck by another feature of the live cast; a 15 second video advertisement that played before the feed would roll. It really bothered me and it got me thinking. Yes, there were hundreds of thousands of viewers, but isn't there an ethical time where marketing needs to have a break? Lives are at risk, those 15 seconds are very important to concerned viewers who might be in the path of the tornadoes.
There is a place where marketing does not belong.
Forget about the potential impressions the ad will get. Not only is nobody watching the content concerned about what they want to eat, but the ads cross a line. I think there should be a law against playing ads in an emergency situation like that because there is clearly a lack of common concern for human lives. Those 15 seconds could mean life or death.