“Bring Your Baby to Life With Your Wii Remote?”

Nov. 2, 2009 Not sure which part of this creeps me out more, the fact that 21st century baby dolls have a Wiimote crammed up the wazoo to ‘bring the baby to life’ as a Wii system accessory, the passive pink gender cues for girls and total absence of boys as video parenting poppas, or the product picture being a dead-ringer look alike of my own offspring at that age. Ewww all … [Read more...]

A Homeless American Girl Doll: Really, AG? REALLY?

Sept. 25, 2009 Never quite thought homelessness would end up a ‘branding opportunity’ but alas, when Virgin Mobile lobbied Congress to declare November Youth Homeless Awareness month to devote time, attention and resources to the issue I thought it was pretty cool. I met a couple of people from Virgin Mobile’s Re-Generation campaign at the cause-marketing lunch table at the … [Read more...]

FCC Chair Receives Our Coalition Letter on Product Placement

Sept. 24, 2009 Shaping Youth is part of this coalition (15pp pdf here) joining over 50 signatories on "FCC Docket 08-90." As a nonpartisan, non-censorship, nonprofit recall I support two key coalitions impacting children, the other being eco-literacy, NCLI. You can get a glimpse of my reasoning here, but I'll focus fully on "'why this is important" deconstructing the … [Read more...]

Should Kids’ Cartoons Sell Fruit & Veggies? Brandwashing Revisited

Sept. 16, 2009 Erma Bombeck once said, “My children refuse to eat anything that hasn’t danced on TV.” Quick! Mind snap: Did you blink to California Raisins boogieing to “Heard it Through the Grapevine?” If so, you’ve been ‘brandwashed’ by that award-winning iconic campaign from FCB so long ago… Next week on Sept. 21, two familiar icons and two slogans will be voted into … [Read more...]

Obama’s Speech to Kids: Controversy or Common Sense?

Sept. 8, 2009 As a nonpartisan, nonprofit, non-religious based entity, I’m having a hard time seeing the logic of pulling kids out of school to avoid a Presidential speech about kids staying in school in protest to the potential for “liberal propaganda and socialist thinking.” Wouldn’t a media literacy lesson using a living lab of live chat be a better EducationWeek-forum … [Read more...]