High School Musical2: Proving Wholesome CAN Sell (& Sell, & Sell…)

By now you’ve all heard the news about Disney’s record-breaking eyeballs racking up 17.2 million viewers for the premiere of the official HSM2, (hit sequel to last year’s High School Musical phenom which hit #1 on album charts, broke the Guinness World Record for the most successful songs from a single soundtrack, received six Emmy nominations, and spread to … [Read more...]

Shaping Youth Brandwashing Data Is Larger Than Stanford’s Study

“A new Stanford study in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine (here) demonstrates just how effective food marketing is in changing young children's perceptions.” Gee, ya think? Their study was funded by the biggies, RWJF and Stanford, with research showing “preschool children think that foods that come in a McDonald's wrapper taste better than … [Read more...]

Do You Think “Greek” Is ABC Family Fare?

Parenting today is a bit like watching this video of sweet puppies... Suddenly Sam "the ugliest dog in the world" pops up in your face and shocks the shorts off of ya! Just when you’re comfy and complacent, whammo, a zinger comes your way from a brand that startles and surprises. Example? My tween is locked into a full tilt music fixation with the Plain White … [Read more...]

Bratz Movie Seeps Brattitude Into Kid Culture

Two of Shaping Youth's stellar Advisory Board team, Dr. Sharon Lamb & Dr. Lyn Mikel Brown at Packaging Girlhood wrote this fabulous Op Ed about the Bratz Film and its purportedly 'cleaned up' message. They plopped it on their blog, and gave me permission to do the same for our readers as "guest editorial" on the next page. I've written about the toxicity of the Bratz … [Read more...]

Cheaper Apple iPhone For 2008: Will They? Won’t They?

Will kids "bite the Apple" or will it prove to be media poison? First Reuters news reported that Apple Inc. plans to launch a cheaper version of the iPhone in the fourth quarter that could be based on the ultra-slim iPod Nano music player, according to a JP Morgan analyst based in Taiwan. NOW, JP Morgan has retracted. Gee, I'll bet analyst Kevin Chang's getting a ruler … [Read more...]