Interactive Games

Lego Friends: Please Build on Possibility, Brain Plasticity

January 1, 2012 by Amy Jussel 37 Comments

April 28, 2016 "37 year old son of Lego billionaire takes the helm as Vice Chairman" Congrats, Thomas Kirk Kristiansen, now that you've inherited the Lego legacy, and named your daughter and five female cousins as 'most active owners' in the young generation family mix, I have high hopes we'll see some gender stereotypes disappear and brain plasticity triumph! Here's to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Advertising, Branding & Consumerism, Consumerism, Emerging trends & STEM, Interactive Games, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Sexualization & Body Image, Shaping Youth, Stereotypes & Diversity Tagged With: 2012 Lego, beauty industry, brick box, Buildables, Case for Make Believe, Cinderella Ate My Daughter, Cordelia Fine, corporate blunders, Delusions of gender, Does stripping gender from toys really make sense?, early child development, Empowering girls, gender equity, Gender Portrayal, girls-self-worth, Kids health, LadyFigs, Lego femininity, Lego Friends, Lego masculinity, Lise Eliot, media analysis, media mindfulness, media-literacy, nature vs nurture, neuroscience, neurosexism, New Moon Girls, Peggy Orenstein, pink brain blue brain, Play-Patterns-Kids, Pop-Culture, role play, science behind sex differences, sexism, Sexualization, spark change, SPARK! summit, stealth STEM, STEM for girls, stereotypes-girls, Stuart Brown, Tetris, Think Different, toy choice, toy marketing

How Can We Use Media To Gift Without Buying?

December 11, 2011 by Amy Jussel 7 Comments

Update: Dec. 12, 2018 Open Call...for any and all ideas to give the gift of TIME to teachers, elders, family and friends and reduce consumption/increase heartfelt meaning in the process! Hit me up with your favorite finds and well-received, positive picks? Dec. 16, 2015 Update For those who appreciated the post "Toy Joy vs Consumption Junction, or one of the original posts … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Consumerism, Counter-marketing, Emerging trends & STEM, Interactive Games, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Mobile Media, Apps & Gaming, Positive Picks, Pro-Social & Positive Picks, Shaping Youth Tagged With: anti-consumption, battling cancer, Buy Buy Baby, buy nothing, catalog shopping, CCFC, Coming of Age In a Crap Economy, commercial free, Consuming kids, consumption, critical thinking, don't buy it, eco literacy, family tradition, financial literacy, freebies, freecycling, gift of time, gift without buying, gifts, giving vs receiving, Good Night iPad, holiday debt, holiday rituals, kids gifts, Me to We, mindfulness, neuroscience of shopping, not buying it, regifting, shop til you drop, student debt, Think Geek, thought that counts, thrifty gifting, virtual gifting

Sesame Street Takes On Bullying in Shows, Talking Points

October 18, 2011 by Amy Jussel 3 Comments

Oct. 18, 2011 “Look at those feet!” Big Bird is told. “They’re ridiculous!” --“They are?”As he tries to get accepted into the “Good Bird Club,” he shifts from “happy to be me” to hanging his feathered beak with insecurity and scuffling his giant orange clompers in ‘not good enough’ mode…Before you roll your eyes at Sesame Street's bullying prevention program as yet another … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Emerging trends & STEM, Growing up too soon, Interactive Games, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Mobile Media, Apps & Gaming, Positive Picks, Pro-Social & Positive Picks, Product Placement, Shaping Youth Tagged With: anti-bullying, Big Bird, bullying, Bullying Prevention, Bystanders, children, Cyberbullying, digital citizenship, education, Good Bird Club, kid lit, Kids TV, kids-media, Love is not abuse, Love is respect, mean girls, media meanness, media-literacy, Muppets, national bullying prevention month, PBS Kids, preschool, Rachel Simmons, Rosalind Wiseman, school climate, Sesame Street, Sesame Workshop, special needs, Stop Bullying Now, tattling, teaching moments, Trudy Ludwig, verbal abuse, Word Girl

Food Marketing to Kids: Occupy Wall Street Applies Here, Too

October 16, 2011 by Amy Jussel 6 Comments

Oct. 16, 2011 It's Blog Action Day today which coincides with United Nations' World Food Day, so my contribution among 80 countries participating is about food policy, profiteering and public health. Follow Twitter's hashtag #BAD11for more food topics Sibling scuffles often end with a thunderous “Enough! Someone’s gonna get hurt” scolding from a parent, so maybe it’s time … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Advertising, Branding & Consumerism, Consumerism, Damaging Drek, Emerging trends & STEM, Growing up too soon, Interactive Games, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Mobile Media, Apps & Gaming, Nutrition & Wellness, Sexualization & Body Image, Shaping Youth, Vapid Values Tagged With: #BAD11, advertising to kids, Blog action day, Blog Action Day 2011, CCFC, CDD, childhood obesity, corporate social responsibility, CSPI, diabetes, digital ads.org, eat real, Fast Food Nation, food and beverage, Food Day.org, food marketing, FTC, Healthy eating research, in-school marketing, Interagency Working Group, IWG, junk food in schools, Morgan Spurlock, Occupy Madison Avenue, Occupy Wall Street, Prevention Institute, School Nutrition Association, Sensible Food Policy, SunnyD sugar spree, SuperSize Me, unhealthy products, voluntary food guidelines, We're Not Buyin It, World Food Day

Deconstructing Spongebob, Pt2: A Preschool Parenting Lens

September 20, 2011 by Amy Jussel 1 Comment

Sept. 20, 2011 In part one, the prelude to this post, I tried to frame the notion of critical thinking skills as a sphere to hold up to the light and rotate slowly instead of banging out opinions in point-counterpoint opposite spectrum and debate polarity. Partly that's because the two focal points I was covering (CCFC's rub with Spongebob Spongebob preschool merchandising … [Read more...]