Extreme Makeover: Ty Pennington's Image Edition

(Everybody! Come see how good I look)


Altruism is defined as the unselfish regard for or devotion to the welfare of others. Among the many types of helping one person can do for another, altruistic helping is the most admirable. Altruistic helping is when a helper seeks to increase another’s welfare and expects nothing in return. This kind of helping is very rare, as most helping actions are motivated by the hope of some type of reward being granted to the helper, even if that hope is subconscious.
Most helping is egoistic. Egoistic helping is when a helper seeks to increase his/her own welfare by helping another. Egoistic helping is featured prominently in one of primetime televison’s most popular programs, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. On the show, ABC selects one family in need (many of which engage in altruistic helping despite their tough living conditions) and rewards the family’s selfless actions with a makeover of their home. ABC’s helping, however, is egoistically motivated. While it may be the most heartwarming program on television, it is still a TV show and ABC makes money off of advertising during the show. Ty Pennington hosts the show and is portrayed as a saint that tours the country helping people because he possesses true altruism and genuinely loves to help people. Ty Pennington may have the biggest heart on the planet, I’m sure he loves his job because of all the great work he gets to do, but it is just that, a job. Pennington gets paid, thus by helping he is improving his own welfare. He gains fame; that is a reward for helping. He is portrayed in the national media as this great, selfless man; that is a reward for helping. Other people in the show are also egoistically motivated. Sears for example donates many of the products installed in the new homes, but in doing so they are advertising. The amount of product placement in Extreme Makeover is baffling. By donating appliances at a microscopic cost to the company, Sears appears to the national audience like a caring, socially responsible and moral corporation. Construction companies compete intensely for the privilege of being able to work on the Extreme Makeover house because they get free advertisement and the “good-guy” image in the community and nationwide. There is a lot of politicking that goes on behind the scenes in selecting which contractor gets to provide the construction team for the show.
Being guilty of helping people for egoistic reasons doesn’t make Ty Pennington a bad man. At least he is helping. It is very difficult to find people that help others for truly altruistic reasons because sometimes when we help, rewards are thrust upon us that we don’t consciously expect, although we may have subconsciously considered the benefit to our own welfare when we decided to help others. It is a shame, however, that most of America doesn’t realize the amount of greed and corporate profit that comes hand in hand with this seemingly altruistic show.