Commercialism Corner

Commercialism Corner: Your one-stop shop for quick summaries and links to all the latest news about the commercialization of childhood.

N.J. Assembly Committee Displaying Ads on School Buses - New Jersey is the latest state attempting to close school budget gaps by selling a captive student audience to advertisers. CCFC's Josh Golin weighs in. http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/news/2010/09/njassembly.html

Learning by Playing: Video Games in the Classroom – This New York Times (registration required) article looks at an educational program called Quest to Learn in New York City, which aims to turn the classroom into a video game experience. Is turning the classroom into a video game really the best way to help children learn and grow, especially when kids spend nearly every waking hour outside of school engaged with screens? http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/magazine/19video-t.html

Seventeen Fuels Fashion's Night Out Takeoff – Seventeen magazine throws a marketing event in New York City for the “adolescent set.”  The fashion night hopes to “encourage girls to part with their money while they’re there” with retailers distributing coupons and other marketing materials.  Event comes complete with “mocktails” for girls. http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/news/magazines-newspapers/e3icb71760d866948d82d6b071d4c82895f

Children's Brain Development Is Linked to Physical Fitness, Research Finds - Researchers have found an association between physical fitness and the brain in 9- and 10-year-old children: Those who are fitter tend to have a bigger hippocampus and perform better on a test of memory than their less-fit peers. While this article doesn’t make the connection, the links between children’s screen time and lack of physical fitness have been made in other research. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100915171536.htm

Disney, Nielsen Team on iPad App – New Disney, Nielsen, iPad teaming will enable people to watch a TV show while simultaneously browsing the web and participating in social media marketing.  The new app will enable even more screen multi-tasking (which has been shown to have negative affects) and more ads crammed into digital spaces.  http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3ic5827d475c9bb436805f367fbb7c3763

MU Criticises an Increase in Sexualisation of Children – A new report finds that UK children are exposed to too much sex and violence on TV.  The UK Prime Minister agrees that the growth of advertising and marketing to kids “is not good for families and not good for society.” http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=100702

'Places' Can Harness Mainstream For Location-Based Services - Facebook’s new “Places” application, which lets users check-in to a location and then tag friends as being there (even if they don’t own a smart phone or use Places) is a marketer’s dream.  Learn why marketers hoping to cash in by exploiting teens are salivating over the profit potential of this location-based app. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=135830