Monopolistic Advertising

Kind of a slow night, and as my mind slogged through the fog of waiting for the Panthers to play (starts at 0220 tonight, so no sleep for me!), I observed the following thoughts.

AFN Radio advertises on AFN TV. What's interesting is that they feel the need to advertise... they are, after all, the only English speaking radio broadcasting in many of the countries that American servicemembers are stationed. Of course, the other question about AFN radio is why so often they broadcast on frequencies that American radios (those made for Americans... like the ones in American cars, and American stereos) do not receive?

And then there's AAFES. AAFES often likes to advertise. The following stores are the only stores that can be found on an American military installation: AAFES and AAFES concessionaires. So, why is AAFES advertising? Sure, there's the Internet for buying stuff and it is becoming more and more popular. However, AAFES is still supposedly where we can find all of the day-to-day items that we need, so... why advertise when you have a monopoly?

Also interesting to see the recruiting ads for the various services. Considering 99.9% of the viewers are presumably quite familiar with the military services.

Some random thoughts...