Commercialism Corner

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

FCC asked to block Skechers' new cartoon series - The AP covers CCFC's petition urging the FCC to rule that a new Skechers-produced children’s show is not in the public interest. CCFC’s petition finds that the show Zevo-3, scheduled to debut on Nicktoons on October 11, is a program-length advertisement and violates ad limits set by Congress in the Children’s Television Act. AP story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/14/AR2010091404586.html. Press release and petition: http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/pressreleases/skecherszevo3.html

San Diego school board rejects campus advertising - After hearing from CCFC members, San Diego Board of Education puts students first and shoots down a proposal for in-school ads. CCFC members who received our action alert went to the school committee meeting and emailed board members, speaking up to make San Diego remain commercial-free. http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/education/schooled/article_1137b0b0-c082-11df-969a-001cc4c03286.html

Outgunned FDA tries to get tough with drug ads - As the FDA struggles to monitor a flood of pharmaceutical advertising, CCFC's Susan Linn highlights the deceptive tactics companies use sell children on drugs in this special report. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6821PN20100903

Less Play Today Means Fewer Leaders For Tomorrow – Gooddard Systems, a childcare franchise, sponsors Play for Tomorrow's Ultimate Block Party: The Arts and Sciences of Play, a national event celebrating the importance of children’s creative play on learning with a major play event in New York City and mini play-focused block parties across the country. http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/less-play-today-means-fewer-leaders-for-tomorrow-102859269.html

UMass professors tap media literacy to fight childhood obesity – Professors at UMass find the marketing of junk food to young people is a leading cause of childhood obesity and launch intervention to help curb effects. http://www.amherstbulletin.com/story/id/181399/

Kmart’s Teen Site Is, Like, Totally Bogus – Kmart’s new teen social networking site, Stylesip, is a thinly and badly veiled marketing ploy. The author writes that parents who realize “what Kmart is up to with Stylesip may be turned off.” http://www.bnet.com/blog/retail-business/kmart-8217s-teen-site-is-like-totally-bogus/10869

As Chinese Youth Head Online, Marketers Follow With Content – Multinational marketers flock to produce branded online entertainment in order to target young people in the world’s most populated country. Branded dramas funded by Unilever, Burger King, General Motors Corp., Kraft Foods, and Anheuser-Busch proliferating all over China. http://adage.com/globalnews/article?article_id=145843

Smith & Tinker, Marvel team up for social and mobile games – Marvel is “chasing consumers on the new platforms audiences are gravitating to for their digital entertainment” with the creation of new apps featuring popular children’s characters Iron Man, the X-Men, Hulk and others. http://venturebeat.com/2010/09/13/smith-tinker-teams-up-with-marvel-on-online-collectible-fighting-game/ Read more!

This Science Lesson is Brought to You By...

An article in the Sacramento Bee last week raised concerns about the role of British Petroleum scientists in shaping a statewide k-12 science curriculum. BP representatives were among many experts called in to shape what and how science would be taught to California students. Having caused the worst human-made ecological disaster ever, BP certainly deserves to be the current poster child for corporate greed and corruption. But the company’s participation on a large committee shaping science curriculum is only a tiny piece of the giant problem of corporate influences on what children learn in school. For one thing, other industry representatives with a clear financial stake in how and what children learn about fossil fuels and non-renewable energy were also represented, along with environmental groups, educators and academics.

Significantly more troubling than BP’s role in shaping the curriculum are what’s called Sponsored Educational Materials (SEMS), created solely by corporations or corporate trade organizations and distributed for free in schools around the world. These teaching materials bypass review by any board of education and are marketed directly to teachers as alternatives to aging, out of date, and/or expensive textbooks.

SEMS are not exactly new. I have vague memories of watching industrial films in elementary school made by G.E. and other companies. But, like all commercialism, the presence of these materials in schools has escalated—and will escalate even more as we continue to abdicate financial responsibility for public education. In Britain, BP creates science and math materials for kids as young as five.

In the U.S., Exxon is notorious for the ecology curriculum it developed after the Valdez oil spill in Alaska. Currently, the American Petroleum Institute (API) hands out teaching materials that are heavy on extolling the virtues of fossil fuels and light on environmental concerns:

API materials also feature a video game about offshore drilling designed for students in grades 6 to 12. Not surprisingly, the action doesn’t include explosions, fires, or devastating, unstoppable leaks:


The American Plastics Council, a division of the American Chemistry Council, which—like BP—helped shape the California curriculum, has its own downloadable teaching materials. Hands on Plastics, Jr., for kindergarten and early elementary school classes, includes a work sheet featuring the Polymer Family’s House:


Of course, the worksheet doesn’t question whether the Polymer family needs all of the plastic stuff in their house. Or how it was made. Or where it’s going to end up.

The American Plastic Council also offers a polymer ditty to be sung in the classroom to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell, which includes verses like this:
What’s markedly absent is a verse addressing any environmental concern about plastic polymers. Perhaps something like this:I’m not unaware of the ways that we benefit from oil and plastic. Full disclosure: I drive a car, have a toothbrush, and my husband is an art conservator who uses plastic polymers in his (excellent) restorations. And I certainly believe that children should learn about material sciences in school. But they shouldn’t be taught content provided by entities with a financial interest in what they do or do not learn.

The American Petroleum Institute, with 400 corporate members, describes itself as “the only national trade association that represents all aspects of America’s oil and natural gas industry.” The goal of its teaching materials is to “Provide teachers and students with engaging and informative resources on energy and related concepts, including the vital role of oil and natural gas in modern life.”

According to the American Plastic Council’s website, its mission is to “advocate unlimited opportunities for plastics and promote their economic, environmental and societal benefits.” To accomplish that mission, the Council demonstrates “the benefits of plastic products and the contributions of the plastics industry to the society it serves.”

The purpose of these organizations is to protect and promote the industries and the corporate interests they serve, not to educate the public with balanced and objective information. Given the state of the environment, we don’t need to extol the benefits of fossil fuels and plastics to children—we should help them weigh the environmental costs against the benefits of our dependence of them, and learn to think carefully about what they need and don’t need.

Oil and plastics aren’t the only industries that distribute SEMS. So does the coal industry, the food industry, the entertainment industry, and even the drug industry. One primary purpose of education should be to promote critical thinking in children. By definition, corporations—legally bound to make profits for their stockholders—can’t jeopardize sales by promoting critical thinking about their products. For that reason, alone, they cannot create effective, ethical educational materials. Read more!

Why is McDonald's listed a resource for Childhood Obesity Awareness Month?

I am not a fan of any sort of  "awareness" month as I find the concept trivializes important health issues. Are we only supposed to care about heart disease, diabetes, etc, during that one month of the year? And I never see anything of substance come from the month-long activities, just the usual ineffective educational campaigns, instead of meaningful public policy reforms. Plus many issues tend to crowd themselves into certain months of the year, so it all just becomes noise.  September is one such month. Among other causes, September has been proclaimed "Childhood Obesity Awareness Month" by Congress and President Obama.
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Are you Kidding Me, Kmart? More on Alloy's First Day

Earlier this week, I wrote about my concerns regarding First Day, the new online Kmart infomercial webisode for tweens and teens from Alloy Media and Marketing. Well, the first episode is up and it’s even worse than I predicted. (The second episode is up too, but there’s a limit to my masochism).

The takeaway? Pick your outfits carefully for the first day of school because:

First day of school determines who you’re gonna be friends with, which determines if a guy is gonna like you which determines if you’ll ever be kissed, because after awhile you build it up and you get all nervous, until you’re 25 and totally unkissable.

Pretty subtle message for a program developed by Kmart to promote its back-to-school clothes.

The show is only 9-minutes and takes place over the course of a single day, but there are still plenty of outfit changes. In fact, the plot consists of little more than a series of mishaps that force the main character to change her clothes after they’ve been soiled. As new outfits are introduced, they flash on a sidebar next to the episode, complete with links to Kmart where young viewers can purchase the items right away.



The entire premise is inherently deceptive. There’s no disclosure that Kmart actually helped write the script, just a credit that says “Styled by Kmart” that flashes on screen before the show starts. If kids knew they were about to tune into a 9-minute commercial, they’d most likely click somewhere else. That’s why Alloy has to pretend that First Day is something more than an ad.

In addition to all the marketing, the show is pretty vile. Amy Jussel of ShapingYouth.org calls First Day “classic online product placement meets mean girl drek.” She breaks down the show a lot more thoroughly than I’m able to (she’s got a sharper eye and a stronger stomach) and I highly recommend her take.

The unholy alliance between Kmart and Alloy is not, however, limited to First Day. Kmart is also promoting its Bongo jeans at Alloy’s Teen.com website, a site that is regularly advertised in classrooms on Alloy’s Channel One. As with First Day, Kmart and Alloy disguise their Bongo advertising as something else – in this case, a “behind the scenes” of a photo shoot with Bongo model (and star of The Hills) Audrina Patridge. Because the “behind the scenes” is one of several rotating ads on Teen.com and may not appear when you click on this link, I’m including a transcript and some screen shots below:

Hi this is Audrina Patridge and I’m taking you behind the scenes on my Bongo shoot. We were shooting the Bongo campaign for this fall and it was really fun and exciting.


The concept behind the Bongo shoot today was very flirty, sexy, pin-up style a little bit. Bongo’s a great brand for going back to school because it’s affordable and it’s stylish.

There’s some really cute striped tops that tied in the back that I loved. All the jeans fit really nice and comfortable and you feel like you look like you have a cute butt.

To sum up:

1. Alloy and Kmart have teamed up for a series of deceptive 9-minute infomercials for teens and tweens to sell back-to-school clothes.
2. Kmart is using a “very flirty, sexy, pin-up style” to market its junior line so girls can “have a cute butt”.
3. Channel One is promoting Teen.com, which features ads like the one described above, to a captive audience of students in nearly 8,000 schools around the country. If you live in a school district with Channel One, your tax-dollars are being used to encourage kids to visit Teen.com where they'll watch ads that celebrate the "sexy, pin-up style."

So what can we do?

First, find out if your child’s school has Channel One. If they do, show your administrators this blog post and ask them to pull the plug. If they don’t, thank them and show them this blog post in case they are ever tempted to consider it.

And if you’re appalled by Kmart’s decision to sexualize children and commercialize classrooms (remember, they are advertising directly on Channel One, too), let them know. Kmart’s chief marketing officer Mark Snyder can be reached at mark.snyder@searhc.com.

More on Alloy and Kmart::


Today is the First Day of Kmart's Marketing Assault on Children:  http://commercialfreechildhood.blogspot.com/2010/08/today-is-first-day-of-kmarts-marketing.html
 
Everything you ever wanted to know about Channel One from Obliation, Inc.: http://www.obligation.org/category/alloy-channel-one-news.

Toxic Teen Messaging In A K-Mart/Alloy Episodic: The First Day by Amy Jussel: http://www.shapingyouth.org/?p=11984.

Kmart targets teens online, via Alloy Media Digital Marketing: Time for FTC & Congress to Protect Adolescent Consumers, inc. Privacy by Jeff Chester: http://www.democraticmedia.org/jcblog/?p=997.


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Commercialism Corner

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

U.S. Pediatricians Decry Media's Portrayal of Sex – A new study published in Pediatrics shows that the messages media teach teens and children about sex are dangerous.  "’We want physicians to ask two media questions at every well-child visit: how much entertainment screen time per day does the child engage in, and is there a TV set or Internet connection in his or her bedroom,’ said Strasburger, professor of pediatrics at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. ‘That takes 20 seconds and may be more important than asking about childproofing or car seats or bicycle helmets.’”  The article shows that media are a powerful sex educator, and with children spending more time with media than in any other activity but sleeping, media needs to shape up.  The authors also recommend that advertisers stop using sex to sell products. http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/642575.html

Baby Carrots Take on Junk Food with Hip Marketing Campaign – In a $25 million effort to win inclusion in millions of back-to-school lunches, the carrot industry launches an ad campaign to brand the orange, crunchy veggie as cool, taking a page out of junk food advertisers’ handbook with Cheetos-like packaging, phone apps, and “sexy” TV ads. http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2010-08-29-baby-carrots-marketing_N.htm

Parents Sue Facebook Over Ads And 'Like' Data – Parents file a suit against Facebook, claiming their children are being exploited for commercial purposes when they see that a friend has “Liked” an ad on Facebook.  With good reason, the parents ask that Facebook obtain parental consent before using minors’ “Like” data for marketing purposes.  http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/1730180/parents-sue-facebook-over-ads-and-like-data

Location-Based Shopping: Can Shopkick Keep Kids in the Mall? – The new application Shopkick (the one that allows marketers to follow customers around stores and into dressing rooms) takes a “decidedly brand friendly approach” and targets teen girls—the marketing platform’s “sweet spot.” http://www.mobilebehavior.com/2010/08/17/location-based-shopping-can-shopkick-keep-kids-in-the-mall/

Spearmark Unveils New Rise & Shine Line – New Disney-branded “sleep-time routine trainer” for kids is a 24-hour programmable electronic device (which dubs as a nightlight) that aims “to teach youngsters about bedtime routines by copying the Disney characters.” http://www.licensing.biz/news/5862/Spearmark-unveils-new-Rise-Shine-line

Strawberry Shortcake Supports Childhood Cancer Month – In advance of the new Strawberry Shortcake show, which will premiere next month on the new Hasbro/Discovery children’s TV network, The Hub, Strawberry Shortcake is promoting childhood cancer awareness month (and its own brand) by sponsoring Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, a nonprofit that raises money for cancer research mainly through lemonade sales, by encouraging people to host special Strawberry Shortcake Alex’s Lemonade Stands. http://www.alexslemonade.org/campaign/strawberry-shortcake
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