IN THIS ISSUE:
CCFC’s Comments to the Federal
Trade Commission:
Industry’s Experiment in
Self-Regulation Has Failed
On July 14-15, the Federal Trade Commission will hold a workshop
on Marketing, Self-Regulation, and Childhood Obesity. In
preparation for the workshop, CCFC submitted comments that
declared the current system of advertising industry
self-regulation a failure. The comments were signed by fifteen
of CCFC’s member organizations. A summary of the comments
appears below; the complete text of the comments is available at
http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/comments/ftcobesityworkshop.pdf.
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The advertising industry’s
thirty-year experiment with self-regulation has failed.
Children see more marketing in more venues than ever before
and much of this marketing is for unhealthy food.
Child-targeted marketing influences children’s food choices,
contributes to the childhood obesity epidemic, and makes
parents’ lives more difficult.
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The industries responsible for this
marketing cannot fix these problems without government
restrictions; merely tweaking the existing system of
self-regulation is not the answer. Far too often there is a
conflict of interest between industry’s mandate to make a
profit – a legal mandate in the instance of corporations – and
public health and safety. Ultimately it is the government’s
role, not the role of corporations, to safeguard the health of
our children.
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There is no doubt that food marketing is a factor in
children’s consumption of unhealthy food and in the rise of
childhood obesity. Studies of food marketing to children
conducted by such august bodies as the World Health
Organization, the Kaiser Family Foundation, the British Food
Commission, and the Institute of Medicine all point to a link
between child-targeted marketing and childhood obesity. While
food marketers tend to minimize or deny the connection between
children’s food choices and advertising, this stance is
puzzling. Either advertising works or it doesn’t. If it
works, then the marketing targeted to children will lead to a
rise in consumption of the products being advertised to them.
If it doesn’t work, then why are companies spending billions
of dollars annually to target children?
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Any legitimate conversation about marketing—including one
about self-regulation—must include the point of view that
government regulation, not self-regulation, is the best way to
minimize the negative effect that advertising and marketing
have on the health and well-being of children.
Child-Responsible Media Campaign Joins CCFC
A warm CCFC welcome to our newest organizational member, the
Child-Responsible Media Campaign. The Child-Responsible Media
Campaign works to protect children from the negative effects of
violent media by raising awareness of media violence issues and
advocating for polices that limit children’s exposure to media
violence.
The Campaign’s website,
http://www.childresponsiblemedia.org,
is a wonderful resource for anyone who wants to track
legislation related to media violence. And right now, there’s
quite a lot to keep track of! Since the 2005 legislative
session began, eighteen states, the U.S. House, and Washington
D.C. have introduced legislation aimed at protecting children
from violent video games. Most notably, in Illinois, a bill
that bans the sale of violent and sexually explicit video games
to children
overwhelmingly passed the state house and senate. To find
out what legislation is being considered in your state, visit http://www.medialegislation.org/States.html
This year’s
TV-Turnoff Week, organized by CCFC member
TV-Turnoff Network, was the biggest and best one yet. More
than seventy organizations endorsed TV-Turnoff Week and more
than 8 million people, from all fifty states and more than a
dozen countries, took part in this year’s turnoff.
Among the
participants: CCFC member organization, Peace Through Play
Nursery School, where children danced and sang “Let’s Not Watch
TV” and wrote a story about all the fun they would have during
TV-Turnoff Week.
From The Motherhood Project: The Motherhood Study
How
do mothers in the United States today feel about being mothers?
What are their most pressing concerns and priorities? CCFC
member The Motherhood Project (headed by steering committee
member Enola Aird) explores these and related questions in its
latest report, "The Motherhood Study"-- a national investigation
of mothers' attitudes, values, concerns, and needs. Read the
report at
www.motherhoodproject.org.
CCFC To Coca-Cola: Stop Targeting Our Children
On April 19, CCFC joined with other
organizations at Coca-Cola’s annual meeting to protest Coke’s
business practices. During the meeting, CCFC’s Josh Golin
challenged Coke CEO Neville Isdell to:
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Publicly acknowledge that some of Coca-Cola’s products are
contributing to health problems for children;
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End all marketing aimed at children – including Coke toys,
product placement, tie-ins with children’s media, and
in-school marketing.
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Stop lobbying against policies that would help combat
childhood obesity.
Click here to read the complete text of CCFC’s comments. To
learn more about CCFC’s Coke campaign, please visit:
http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/actions/tiaacrefcoke.htm.
Free
Press Action Alert: Tell Congress to Save Children’s
Educational Programming on PBS
A congressional subcommittee
has voted to slash more than $200 million in funding for public
broadcasting, including $23.4 million earmarked for "Ready to
Learn" children's educational programming -- the money that
keeps shows like "Sesame Street," "Arthur," and "Clifford the
Big Red Dog" on the air. While the increased commercialization
of PBS’ children’s fare is deeply disturbing, cutting public
funding for these shows will only force PBS to look even more to
corporations for support. If we ever hope to return PBS to its
original mission of providing a commercial-free haven for
children, the first step is ensuring that children’s programming
survives.
The media reform organization Free Press
and others have organized a campaign to save public funding for
PBS. To learn what can you do, please visit:
http://www.freepress.net/action/callcongress.php?a=savepbs
Media
Literacy In A Violent Society: Confronting The Hazards Of Media
Culture
Where: Wheelock College, Boston
Date: July 6 - 9
Time: Wednesday - Saturday, 9:00 am - 5:00
pm
For the past
nine years, Wheelock College has offered this summer institute
for educators, parents, human service providers, policy makers
and community activists. This 4-day event examines the role
media (television, movies, magazines, video games and
advertising) play in shaping children's development, attitudes
and behaviors, as well as our overall culture. A central focus
of the institute is on exploring the nature and effects of
violent, sexist, racist, consumer-driven media content and
commercial media culture. Attendees learn to develop broad-
based media literacy curricula and to integrate conflict
resolution and consumer education into work with children and
youth. The institute provides a forum where participants from
diverse backgrounds can work together to positively effect the
media's role in shaping our children's lives and society.
Faculty teaching the institute are CCFC’s Diane Levin, author of
Remote Control Childhood and Teaching Young Children
in Violent Times, Gail Dines, author of Gender, Race and
Class in the Media, and Petra Hesse, Rambo Meets Care
Bears in the Classroom.
Available for no credit or as
a 3 credit graduate course. For more information, visit
http://www.wheelock.edu/pdi/pdihome.asp or Diane Levin at
617-879-2167 or
dlevin@wheelock.edu.
Classical Baby Becomes Classic Controversy
Last month,
CCFC issued a press release warning parents to keep their
infants and toddlers away from the HBO special Classical Baby.
CCFC urged parents to follow the American Academy of Pediatrics
recommendation that children under the age of two should not
watch any television and challenged HBO’s claims that the show
was beneficial for infants
CCFC’s Diane Levin said that the push to
get babies to watch television is depriving them of the real
learning and exploiting parents’ desire to be good parents.
“Babies learn best by interacting with people and objects and
seeing how they can affect their world. What they learn from
television is to turn to screens for stimulation and soothing.”
CCFC’s objections to Classical Baby were
aired in media outlets across the country including Good
Morning America, ABC World News Tonight, several radio
programs and a
widely syndicated story by Associated Press.
CCFC Raps
McDonald’s Supersized Hypocrisy
CCFC also led the criticism of
McDonald’s announced plan to pay rap artists to integrate the
Big Mac into their lyrics. CCFC’s Susan Linn noted, “Even as
food companies pay lip service to the idea of responsible
marketing, they increasingly turn to new and deceitful ways of
targeting children. Listeners won’t know the rappers are being
paid to push Big Macs -- these ‘adversongs’ are inherently
deceptive.”
CCFC’s critique was included in many of the
stories written about McDonald’s hip-hop campaign. Through our
efforts, journalists are increasingly questioning the ethics of
marketing to children, rather than simply reporting on the
latest marketing developments. You can find these stories in
the “In the News” section of our
website.
The Danger of
Marketing Loud as Fun
Arline Bronzaft, Professor Emerita of Psychology, City
University of New York, and one of the nation’s foremost experts
on the effects of noise on children, has written an article for
CCFC on the loud products that are marketed to kids. From toys
for toddlers to video games and sound systems for preteens and
teens, children are consistently marketed the idea that loud
equals fun. And, according to Dr. Bronzaft, parents are often
unaware that these loud toys and products can affect children’s
hearing. Click here
to read The
Danger of Marketing Loud as Fun.
Babies are 350% more responsive to
smells than adults. In order to grow brand loyal babies,
marketers are going to be putting signature smells in baby
products to evoke positive memories when children are exposed to
that brand later in life.
Kids who want all 72 collectible Stars
Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith M&M wrappers will need to
buy more than 45 pounds of M&M’s (containing more than
10,000 grams of sugar).
McDonald’s has
given Ronald McDonald an image makeover, and is featuring the
world’s most famous junk food spokesman as a snowboarding
fitness guru in a new series of ads. Even more disturbing:
MSNBC’s morning show recently “interviewed” the fictional
corporate mascot to talk about his new look.
Interstitial: a medical term used to
designate the narrow spaces between tissue or parts of organs.
In commercial land, the word interstitial
is often used to refer to the spaces between programs where ads
or public service announcements, are shown Now the industry is
using the term to mean the time between activities in children’s
lives—and they intend to fill that time with marketing.
Referring to Nickelodeon’s partnership with Verizon to produce
programming for cell phones, Mike Sakgerlind, of Nickelodeon
Online said, “We want to fill the interstitial parts of kids’
lives, in the doctor’s waiting room, at the supermarket-checkout
line . . .we want to provide our content to kids wherever they
are.”
From a
marketing perspective, cell phones are a good way to do that.
And marketers are mounting aggressive, dual-edged, campaigns to
make it happen. Cell phones are being marketed to parents as a
safety device, and to children as a cool new “must have”
accessory. What marketers aren’t tell parents is that
cell phones are yet another way that companies can make an end
run around them to reach children directly. Advertisers view
cell phones as the next marketing frontier. Brands like Frito
Lay and Pepsi are already incorporating cell phones into their
marketing campaigns aimed at teens and pre-teens.
Of course, as
many parents are discovering, last year’s phone is no longer
cool enough. Between upgrades to camera and video phones,
calling plans, and accessories such as ring tones, cell phones
have quickly become a very pricey “necessity.” And cell phones
are being marketed to younger and younger children. 190,000 kids
under the age of ten already have one and that number is
expected to double in the next year. Giudetek Technology has a
new line of pale pink and blue models shaped like cute little
bears--for children as young as three. Giudetek will be joined
later this year by toy giants Mattel and Hasbro, which are both
adding a line of cell phones for the very young.
Meanwhile, DIC Entertainment is creating the first ever cell
phone animation channel featuring characters like the Care Bears
who already shill for sugary fruit snacks and cereals. Sesame
Workshop and Nickelodeon are partnering with Verizon to target
toddlers with cell phone programming. Parents are being
encouraged to hand video phones to babies for soothing during
travel. A recent article in Advertising Age equated cell phones
with pacifiers and rattles.
Getting infants to turn to cell phones for stimulation and
soothing may be good for corporate profits, but it’s bad for
babies who are losing yet another opportunity to initiate active
engagement in the world, and to learn to calm themselves through
their own internal resources or the comfort of other people.
Like baby videos and computer lap ware, foisting cell phones on
babies and toddlers becomes one more step toward creating a
generation of children who are bored or anxious unless they are
glued to a screen.
And that’s exactly where the marketing industry wants them.
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