Go to BlogTalkRadio’s Our View from the Park today at 11:00 a.m. (central) where I’ll be interviewed by Ginny Heinrich. You can call in with questions at (646) 200-4753.

Congratulations to Amy and Marc Vachon from Equally Shared Parenting. They will be featured in this Sunday’s New York Times Magazine (online version available today). I met Amy at the CCFC Conference in Boston last April. Amy and Marc’s success is great news for bloggers and for parents with a passion. (Downside: I will end up doing more laundry because of this.)

The New York Times reports on the most recent toy makeovers, including Strawberry Shortcake (click for the must-see visual).  As described at The F-Word:

The new, “improved” Strawberry Shortcake’s adorable chubby cheeks have been noticeably thinned out, her pudgy nose realigned into a perky little point, her signature red kinky hair straightened into hot pink silky tresses, and her frilly bloomers replaced with, well, I don’t even want to speculate on what’s beneath that mid-thigh-high dress — even her cat is thinner.

Good thing that cartoonish body images don’t affect little girls! Oh, wait. Never mind.

Marketing to kids has become a competitive business. So here’s some great! ideas! on how to capture kids’ attention! But please, if I read one more article on marketing to children with the tagline it isn’t child’s play I’m going to throw up.

Since I know some readers here are also fans of Fox News and Bill O’Reilly, and since I’ve been talking up the NCMR like crazy, I thought I should note that O’Reilly’s characterization of the event and the people attending was pretty inaccurate. Others agree. 

Minnesota reporter Paul Schmelzer notes that O’Reilly’s report failed to mention

. . . views from the kind of people I met, from mainstream reporters to church-based peace advocates to activists working to get accurate representations of rural life into corporate media.

 Attendee Larry Hollon reports

. . . I heard humane values and a concern for social justice and human dignity that was solid and deeply moving, and I believe this is where progressive faith and media reform intersect.

A young, fourteen-year-old female spoke of her concern about a misogynist print ad for a Latino radio station that she believed promoted both violence and sexual abuse of women. When she showed the bus card for the ad, it was clear she had a genuine complaint.

Her recounting of the efforts of a group of young women to get the ad pulled was harrowing. The full force of a corporate media headquarters was brought against these teenagers in an effort to discourage them and scare them away. Yet they persisted and eventually the ad was withdrawn.

As she spoke, I don’t think she was aware of the tears in the eyes of many who’ve been in such struggles and know the costs firsthand.

And from Josh Silver, Free Press executive director: 

The conference . . . was about the failure of corporate media to inform and reflect our communities and our democracy. It is about consolidated TV, radio and newspapers turning the news into sound bites, trivializing critical issues like elections and war, and failing to hold power accountable.

It is a free speech movement at its core, calling for a stronger democracy. We want more channels and more opportunities for voices and views of all kinds.

This is the conference that I saw. I heard some terrific stories and concerns — and questions.

If we own the airwaves, and broadcasters are required to serve the public interest, why are parents always being told to just turn off the television if we don’t like it? How do we trust journalists to tell us the truth about, say, a multi-billion dollar toy company’s problems with lead paint if that company is also a huge source of the owner’s revenue through advertising? If we get ninety percent of our news from only six companies, how will we get a diversity of opinions?

My complaint about the conference was that there was not one session dedicated to how these problems are affecting children and how we raise them. Not one. Several speakers mentioned, in passing, the problems with advertising to kids — Robert McChesney called it obscene — yet no panel formally addressed it.

The conference organizers were taping attendees and asking them to describe why they were there in five words. My five would have been I’m Raising Citizens Not Consumers. 

Is it accurate for O’Reilly to call me “unstable” and a threat to America?

(And was O’Reilly referring to me when he says that “these people” don’t want “dissent in America?” I guess he hasn’t been reading Corporate Babysitter.)

The back and forth of the left and right is tiresome. There really are some values that we all hold as important. I believe that media reform is one of them.

Photo courtesy edkohler

So busy with conferences I completely missed the news that the Minneapolis Park and Rec Board decided to allow a $48 billion home improvement corporation to advertise on our playgrounds and parks (Ad creeps lurk around Minneapolis public playgrounds).

Unlike television advertising, our public park is not something parents can “just turn off.” 

Naomi Klein, author of No Logo: No Space, No Choice, No Jobs:

It’s one of the ironies of our branded age, that unbranded space. Public space, or pseudo-public space, is now a luxury item that is only really available to the very rich. Once you move up the class hierarchy, things get a lot more tranquil and quiet, and you sort of pay not to be marketed to.

The banner ads are scheduled to remain in the parks until December. When they are damaged, however, they will be removed and not replaced.

Image courtesy timlings

I’ll be interviewed live this Friday on BlogTalkRadio. Minneapolis Community and Technical College librarian Ginny Heinrich will talk with me about blogging and Parents for Ethical Marketing on their show, Our View from the Park. Tune in at 11:00 a.m. Minneapolis time.

It’s a Big Media Week here in Minneapolis. 

Tomorrow, Thursday, is the ACME Teach-In. Josh Golin (CCFC) will be presenting Using Big Media’s Exploitation of Children to Motivate Parents and Others Toward Media Reform (more here). 

The National Conference for Media Reform starts Friday. I’m a conference volunteer (work eight hours, get in free!). While I had fantasies that my volunteer assignment would be to keep Dan Rather supplied with bourbons-straight-up, I’ve been asked to be a regular old room monitor. Just like fourth grade. Good news: I learned at the volunteer training last night that there will be at least one table in the exhibit area where attendees can drop their own literature. What a way to get our name in front of 3,000 people!

Here’s an Interview with Free Press’s Josh Silver via Minnesota Monitor.

Friday night is the opening for Project Girl: A Multimedia Exhibition and Guide to Un-Mediafying Your Life at Intermedia Arts. Lyn Mikel Brown will be speaking.

Sunday night is the Anne Elizabeth Moore reading at Arise! Bookstore. Is it enough to know that Pamela Anderson has read Unmarketable? No? Then if you need to become more familiar with Anne Elizabeth Moore, read Rob Walker’s interview with Anne Elizabeth Moore. Or read Anne Elizabeth Moore’s interview with Rob Walker. (Note to self: keep short name.)

Hello to anyone who has come to Parents for Ethical Marketing and the Corporate Babysitter through one of these events!

And why does all this media reform matter to those of us concerned with marketing to children?

Television broadcasters are supposed to serve the public interest — that’s why they have free use of the airwaves. But since media companies were allowed to consolidate, children’s educational programming has decreased — dramatically. That’s one reason why Parents for Ethical Marketing is taking a stand against media consolidation. (Big Media, Little Kids 2: Examining the Influence of Duopolies on Children’s Television Programming)

Right now phone and cable companies would like to be able to control what you — and your kids — see and do on the internet. If corporations decide what web content to provide, would children still have access to the advertising-free educational sites like Starfall? Would you be able to read blogs critical of corporate power (like this one)? Probably not as easily. That’s why Parents for Ethical Marketing supports net neutrality.

Do I even have to mention what mainstream media is doing to kids?

Media reform means more voices, more options, more ideas, more knowledge — creating informed, healthy kids who become informed, healthy adults.

Photo courtesy woodleywonderworks

Does NASA really have to team up with Disney to get kids interested in science and engineering? Of course not. But a partnership will sure help get Disney’s name in more places. Watch for it on a Moon near you!

Speaking of Disney, Sara at Gamine Expedition says that Disney’s new ad lab sends shivers down [her] spine. This is just about as creepy as it gets:

The effort is part of a companywide campaign to bring Disney’s advertising sales strategy into the 21st century as behavioral research is more plentiful in the digital age . . . . television networks have second-by-second viewing data available . . . .

The Writer’s Guild of America thinks that product placements on television shows should be disclosed as they appear. Children’s programming would be a great place to start. (via Murketing)

Even the most vigilant media-aware parents can’t detect it all: Indiana Jones Marketing Defeats JediMom Radar.

Yes, we want corporations to do what they can to make eco-friendly products — but slapping a word on the package (or a phrase on the press release) does not make it so.

Here, the Rainforest Action Network looks at Mattel’s Barbie B-Cause in their Greenwash of the Week (via Feministing):

Mom Unplugged confesses to becoming a blog capitalist with the introduction of the Unplug Your Kids Store, but she’s really just doing all of us a tremendous favor.

If you’re not familiar with Mom Unplugged, she’s already famous for her toy recommendations as well as her kids’ projects. With the Unplug Your Kids Store, she’s going to rummage through Amazon.com to bring us the best toys and books for kids:

I really hope that my store can help people cut through some of the toy and book junk out there. Having only a Walmart and Kmart to shop at for toys has made me an expert online shopper. I would like to pass along the good finds to others. . . . Most of what I recommend, we have and love. The rest is stuff I would like to have and love!

Plus, she’s promised me NO DISNEY PRINCESSES. I’m guessing we’ll never see anything with a licensed character at all. At least that’s what I’m hoping.

Thanks, Mom Unplugged, for helping promote good, safe books and toys for our kids — and helping to support PEM’s mission to sustain the health of children and families. You are Officially Babysitter Approved!