Mattel’s Manipulative Monster High Marketing Machine: Unkind.

June 15, 2012 Last year when I wrote about Mattel’s vampy campy Monster High dolls I purposely didn’t even name their brand, hoping it would quietly fizzle and bury itself in the outcry of parents tired of sexploitation, sassy, rude, mean behavioral cues sent to kids, blatant consumerism and vapid values.When Mattel tried to backpedal from the toxic messages in their webisodes … [Read more...]

Vamp Tramp Toys: A Monster Problem

Mar. 16, 2011 Show and tell time on this  Wordless Wednesday. Not going to give them the pleasure of naming names here to add to their search engine buzz, since  research has shown that one of mega-marketer's favorite ploys is now baiting parents for "outrage" ...(yes, there are even strategic microsites like "your mom hates this" to serve as catnip for older kids, sigh, … [Read more...]

Sexualization Summit: Save the Date Oct 22, 2010 NYC

May 17, 2010 As irony would have it, on Thurs, May 13, in New York City, a small tribe of thought leaders convened on how to best address rampant sexualization of youth in media and marketing. Each invitee of this diverse group was hand-selected for the purpose of "bringing their entire communities" into the conversation and sharing next steps, best practices, and public … [Read more...]

“I’m Not A Prude, But…”

Oct. 23, 2009 How many times have you heard that preface to a conversation about pop culture lately? Tweens? Teens? Okay, I promised NOT to do a Halloween Horrors bit on girls' costumes and tramp vamp cues (been there, done that) BUT the irony in the timing of this post from Australia titled, "Musical Tarts are Infecting Our Children" that referenced us here at Shaping … [Read more...]

What About the Boys? ‘Packaging Boyhood’ Authors Respond

Oct. 12, 2009 Tomorrow Shaping Youth advisors and authors of Packaging Boyhood launch their sequel book to my favorite media literacy teaching tool on the 'pink think' stereotypes front, Packaging Girlhood. For years I've been asking the 'what about the boys' question in my work, because frankly, boys are getting just as hammered with negative cues about what 'real men' … [Read more...]