I’m thrilled to be included in a segment of the Montery, California radio show Fathers are Forever. The segment will examine the sexualization of children and what parents can do about it. It will air live tomorrow night (Friday, September 5) from 7 to 9 pm (Pacific). You can listen to the show here.

I’ll be following Diane Levin and Jean Kilbourne, authors of So Sexy So Soon.

Hosts of Fathers are Forever are dads Rocky Snyder and Steve Ashley, founder of the Divorced Fathers Network.

BusRadio is a perfect example what is wrong with the profit-based commercialization of childhood. Children are literally a captive audience on a school bus. They have no choice but to listen to whatever is being broadcast. The BusRadio “service” is sold to underfunded schools as a way to get new radio equipment free of charge. And BusRadio gets to decide what ”kid-friendly” songs sounds like and which “carefully selected sponsorships” are appropriate whether your child is six or sixteen.

Join CCFC’s campaign to get kid-friendly ads like this off BusRadio’s website.
 

I took my family to watch democracy in action during the protest march on the RNC yesterday. Nutshell: a peaceful and powerful display of free speech at its most creative was interrupted by a dangerous and annoying group of protest-rebel-wannabees. (I imagine their photos will be featured in an “Xtreme Activism” display sponsored by Red Bull.)

Here’s what I learned:

Downtown St. Paul is huge. Or it must be. How else can I explain being in the middle of it and not see any of the destruction that was going on around us? (Read A Lovely Afternoon Stroll through the Police State of St. Paul, Minnesota and RNC Day One Diary: All roads lead to Kellogg Boulevard.)

I’m not the kind of person who jumps right into the action. On our way to downtown St. Paul we were confused because our bus was not following the special RNC reroute. Then we saw a large group of police officers, in full riot gear, running. In our direction. My husband suggested we jump off the bus there to see what was going on; I declined. Even if we hadn’t had our girls with us, I don’t know that I would have wanted to witness what happened next:

Undercover cops are not fooling anyone. Two undercover cops stepped out of the march and stood beside me to watch the crowds. Overstuffed backpacks, new water bottles, new tennis shoes? My husband said they could be frat boys, but I dared him to find another protestor with wrap-around sunglasses. They took off running after a cell phone call.

I’m not the kind of person to approach celebrities. When we first got off the bus, I saw Noah Kunin (with The Uptake, who provided the best RNC protest coverage) documenting the day with his cell phone. My impulse was to yell, “Go, Uptake!” or to run up and shake his hand. Couldn’t do it.

Jon Stewart is taller than you’d think. No details, see previous re: Noah Kunin.

Twitter has a greater purpose. Tweeting takes on a whole new meaning if you’re spending the day in the middle of chaos. (Read The Revolution will be Twittered at Firedoglake.) After we returned home safely we were glued to s4xton, coldsnaplegal, JasonBarnett, MnIndyLIVE, and PiPress. (And to the live streams coming from The Uptake.) How did I manage without Twitter for so long?

I probably should have anticipated the ironic ending to our day. It had been a very hot day and we ran out of water. On our walk back to the bus stop (futile, as the buses has stopped running), the girls stopped to cool off in this fountain by the Capitol.

And these are the officers who told the kids: You can’t be in the water! Get out! 

Just happy they weren’t in riot gear.

Since the adopted Democratic platform (pdf) did not include specific language to protect children against “marketing-driven media industries,” I’m not holding out much hope for the Republican platform. 

I guess this is the best we could get from Denver:

We will encourage more educational content on the Web and in our media. We will give parents the tools and information they need to manage what their children see on television and the Internet – in ways fully consistent with the First Amendment.

Really, Democrats? You don’t intend to violate the First Amendment? Thanks for clarifying. 

It’s hard to ignore the Republican National Convention here in the Twin Cities. So today we are headed to downtown St. Paul to watch the activities. I’m hoping someone will ask me what I think. If anything exciting happens you’ll hear about it via Twitter.

Friend of Parents for Ethical Marketing Anne Elizabeth Moore is in town and blogging the RNC. You can also follow her on Twitter.

The Multinational Monitor has a must-read interview with Susan Linn, director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, covering television advertising, commericalism in schools, food marketing, childhood sexualization, Disney, Bratz, McDonald’s, Baby Einstein, Scholastic, Abercrombie, and Hannah Montana.

MM: What do you say to the claim that, if parents are concerned about advertising, they can just turn off their kids’ TVs, or keep TVs out of their bedrooms?

Linn: I think it’s either naïve or disingenuous to believe that one family in isolation can combat a $17 billion industry working day and night to undermine parental authority, and to bypass parents and target children directly with messages that usually aren’t good for them.

Parents do have a responsibility to work to protect their children from the onslaught of advertising and marketing, but they can’t do it alone.

This is a terrific primer on the state of corporate marketing directed at children and its ramifications.

Also be sure to check out the redesigned CCFC website. I especially like the new issues pages with facts and resources for each specific topic, including media violence, school commercialism, and materialism and family stress, among others.

On the upcoming makeover of Dora the Explorer, to make her appear older and more feminine: 

Nancy Zwiers, chief executive of Funosophy, a children-focused marketing firm, said the challenge for Nickelodeon and similar networks was that children were migrating to more mature programming earlier.

“The younger kids enter into a franchise, the younger they leave it,” she said. Hannah Montana, originally aimed at children aged eight to 12, was increasingly popular among viewers half that age, Ms. Zwiers said. 

On why Disney is making mobile phone applications for preschoolers:

Disney hopes some of its customers will literally cut their teeth on its mobile products: Inspired by the success of multimedia toys from companies like Baby Einstein, Disney is considering making mobile applications for preschoolers. [Executive vice president of business development and operations for the Walt Disney Internet Group Larry] Shapiro notes that young children love to play with cell phones and busy parents may want a mobile “digital pacifier” to entertain them while on the go. (via)

On why Sears is selling virtual clothing online:

Teens and tweens are making more and more of the purchase decisions, or at least influencing that decision. Mom already knows that Sears provides trusted value and quality, but we need to prove to the teens and tweens that we have the apparel and styles to help them “arrive” at school this year with confidence. . . . And as we continue to expand our outreach to the tween demographic it is increasingly important to expand our marketing strategy to include the mediums where tweens are spending most of their time.

Related posts:
Marketers would like a branch on your family tree
Your heard it here first . . . uh, second: Parents, are you Tweenabees?
A sexualized Miley Cyrus? One word: Disney.

Call for stories: When did you realize that consumer marketing was affecting your family?

I’m looking for stories about those moments when you decided that you’d had enough with the TV commercials, the magazine ads, the billboards, the candy racks, or whatever else got you thinking that your child was a target market.

Comment, or send me an email: lisa (at) parentsforethicalmarketing (dot) org.

photo courtesy simonkoleznik