Vaulted Into the Limelight: When Candid Camera Goes Viral

Yesterday I wrote about what happens when stars are caught on camera unaware, and alluded to what could happen if kids become ‘slumber party set-ups’ for funny viral videos, or turned into web celebs when they wish to be regular Joes. I was hoping I could defer the topic a tad longer to do my homework with some legal beagles, but alas, the 18-year old … [Read more...]

Celebs Without Makeup: Beauty Bashing Via Video?

Awhile back I found this poignant painting (at left) on Ashley Cecil's blog. She uses a paintbrush to bring issues to the forefront through artistic journalism, and this post about kids' exposure to daytime TV is no exception. This art piece depicting body image messages being sent to kids in our media culture moved me so much, I bought it for our work in Shaping Youth's … [Read more...]

Dads and Daughters Togetherness: A Firsthand Snapshot

We interrupt this CBS program series recap to bring you word from the parenting trenches, sharing a magic media moment! Promise I’ll get back to last night’s CBS advergaming segment (video clip here) but frankly, Shaping Youth’s readership is well-versed in the pitfalls of same...Especially since I’ve already covered advergaming here, and here, and … [Read more...]

Shaping Youth Through Consumerism: The Hard Sell to Kids

Buy, Buy, Baby. CBSNews is doing a four-part series called Gotta Have It: The Hard Sell to Kids all about womb to tomb marketing, with kids being targeted in a scope we’ve never seen before. In this video clip, investigative journalist and Buy, Buy, Baby author Susan Gregory Thomas talks about the $20 billion being spent on the 0-3 “baby genius” products … [Read more...]

Online Media Nutrition Calculator Helps Parents Track Foods

Fresh from our living lab’s counter-marketing success at Allen Elementary (our pilot program we wrote about here) we thought we’d share some of our interactive nutrition data tools that YOU can easily use to curb childhood obesity in your home or school. This weekend, we showed peninsula PARENTS (and the greater Bay area community) our media-based reality show … [Read more...]