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P.S. Miss you.

I was struck by President Bush’s kind words to the Obama family in his farewell address:

And I join all Americans in offering best wishes to President-elect Obama, his wife Michelle, and their two beautiful girls. 

It was the “beautiful girls” that threw me. Unfortunately, I can’t make a direct comparison to the most popular descriptions of young sons who have moved into the White House — there haven’t been any in recent history — but I’m going to venture to guess that they wouldn’t have been described as handsome. Or cute. Or with any termingology that described their physical appearance.

So this is where we are. On Tuesday we’ll be witnessing an historic inauguration and on Wednesday, it will be back to business as usual for American girls: Corporate-created media images and messages telling them that their value lies only in how they look and what they buy.

No example is more appropriate than this dissection* of the premiere lifestyle brand, American Girl:

Some might argue that American Girl is not as bad as other materials on the market, or as offensive as Barbie or Bratz dolls. This argument misses the key features of what makes this phenomenon so insidious: how corporations play on the feminist and /or educative aspirations of parents, teachers, girls, and young women and turn these toward consumption. American Girl is less about strong girls, diversity or history than about marketing girlhood, about hooking girls, their parents and grandparents into buying the American Girl products and experience.

Meant to be lessons in history featuring girls, their books fail, too:

. . . any potential “girl-power” lessons are short-circuited in these books through the use of historical fiction to deliver traditional lessons about what girls can and should do. While the stories take place in key historical moments, such as the Civil War, and World War II, the girls rarely participate in historical events in any substantial way. Meet Molly is set in WWII and her father, a doctor, serves in the U.S. military. Molly’s concerns center on what to be for Halloween and how to deal with a bothersome brother. The historical fictions encourage a limited independence and emphasize conventional “good girl” behaviors. Girls might go on an adventure or two, but these are usually within the bounds of family relationships (e.g., playing tricks on brothers) rather than as social actors in a larger world.

As for those “good girl” behaviors, we look to Harvard historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich who said, “well-behaved women seldom make history.” 

My hope is that we take the inspiration of electing our first black President and continue the momentum until we elect our first woman president. And until half our senators and representatives are women. And until women receive equal pay for equal work.

And it all begins with girls. Smart girls. Strong girls. Capable girls. Energetic girls. Creative girls. Hopeful girls.

More on hope:

New Moon Girls: Advertising-free social networking site for girls 8 to 12, plus the classic magazine. This week they are welcoming Sasha and Malia Obama to the White House and calling on girls to report on inaugural activities. Citizen journalism!

TVbyGirls: In the Twin Cities, TVbyGirls teaches the skills needed for girls to learn how to create their own media to expand expanding “the vitality of images about girls and women.” Watch their videos and if you’re local, get a girl you know involved.

The Girl Revolution: For grown-ups who love girls, “The Girl Revolution’s only aim is to heal the soul of the world by raising powerful girls. . . . We’re going to protect them from media consumption and dissolve every single barrier that exists between girls and gender and economic equality.”

*H/T to our friends at the Institute for Humane Education.

My kids attend a great public school here in Minneapolis and as you might suspect, I keep my eye on commercialism creep there. It is rarely a problem. One day I did notice a busload of kids running into school with brand-new Target bookbags, straight from a Target-sponsored trip to the zoo. I bit my tongue.

Last week my daughter came home with an offer to participate in the McDonald’s All-American Reading Challenge. For every ten books she reads, she gets a Happy Meal. (Didn’t they learn anything from the report card-Happy Meal fiasco?) I wrote the teacher, declining the invitation and asking for an alternative reading “incentive” for my daughter — a book, perhaps?

Another parent brought this one to my attention. It came home with her son from the school lunchroom. It’s a bookmark with a word search on it. Educational!

Find the seven words hidden below that can lead you to a healthy day.

See the first word in the list? DORITOS?

But see, PepsiCo isn’t saying that DORITOS will lead you to a healthy day. That would be crazy!

The instructions say to find the seven words.

And the list has eight.  

Read: FTC Hands Kids Over to Junk Food Marketers, Defying Global Principles

A friend kindly alerted me to a new ad from the good-hearted social activists at Dove/Unilever.

The video, like Dove’s others, made my blood boil. Thinking that my friend understood my point — that Dove/Unilever cannot both decry and promote harmful media images of women – I shot a note back to him, expressing my contempt for the ad and thanking him for sending it.

He was confused. Rightly so. Here’s the ad:

Watching this, all I can think about is the hypocrisy of Dove/Unilever claiming that they created special workshops to help promote self-esteem in girls. (These are the same people who came up with this hysterical ad: If Barack Obama wore Axe, Hillary Clinton would vote for him.) And that by buying Dove/Unilever products, you can help girls get their self-esteem back.

But to my friend, this video was eye-opening. He said:

I was really struck by the ad content . . . because it actually made me more aware of the problem. It made me think about the young girls I know (cousins, daughters of friends, my about-to-be niece) and how they will encounter all that pressure. My reaction to that awareness was, “what positive messages can I send to the girls I love to counter some of this?”

Whoa. You mean, the ad was effective? 

Ouch.

I originally wrote about the Campaign for Real Beauty a couple of years ago.

I’ve also written about their hit video Onslaught and Dove/Unilever’s message: It’s a parent’s responsibility to make sure the damaging messages they themselves produce don’t reach your kids.

I need to remember that I’ve been working on these issues for quite a while. And not everyone is at the same place that I am when they see ads like these. 

And in that sense, this ad by Dove/Unilever is a good thing: It captured at least one person’s attention and brought the issue to light for him. It’s a start.  

However, I still believe that by continuing to market the products they do and by continuing to create the advertisements they do, Unilever assures that they will continue to have a captive audience for whatever they need, whether it’s consumers to buy products, donors for campaigns, or young girls for self-esteem workshops.

If the problem here really is media images, and if Dove/Unilever really wants to help girls, how about this: Stop producing the ads.

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):

Procter & Gamble has set up a toll-free hotline for feedback on whether or not they should continue advertising on MTV and BET.

(800) 331-3774

The Enough is Enough Campaign has asked P&G to remove its commercials from some of the programming on MTV and BET:

Proctor & Gamble has a campaign called, “My Black Is Beautiful.” . . . the campaign is about affirming the inner and outer beauty of black women.  It seeks to affirm the young black girls who “are at risk of allowing the negative images of Black women in media and entertainment to define their standard of beauty,” and “to affect positive change in the way Black women are reflected in the popular culture.” 

. . . The problem is that Proctor & Gamble is one of the largest, if not the largest corporate sponsor of music video programs on Black Entertainment Television; video programs that sexually objectify women, portray black men as pimps and gangsters, and promote ideas that are antithetical to this “My Black Is Beautiful.”

Sound familiar? P&G, however, actually responds by asking us what we think. Let’s tell them.

(800) 331-3774

Please spread the word, especially to those who have kids who watch MTV and BET.

Enough is Enough and Parents Television Council also recently released The Rap on Rap: A Content Analysis of BET and MTV’s Daytime Music Video Programming (report pdf).

Read more:

Faith in Action
Black Women Vote
What About Our Daughters?

So how, exactly, does a ridiculous book published by a vanity press get a review in Newsweek? “My Beautiful Mummy” book: Newsweek beat-up sucks most in

The Anti-Advertsing Agency wants to help some poor marketer break free of their soul-sucking career: Foundation For Freedom announces grant program: The 2008 AAAFFFA

The Cause Marketing Forum will feature professionals who have produced the “most outstanding cross-sector campaigns” like Unilever’s Campaign for Real Beauty. We all know how Unilever contributes to the very problem they are claiming to help in the Onslaught video, but did you know about the palm oil? From Greenpeace:

The story on Procter & Gamble’s Beinggirl.com just keeps getting worse.

First of all, I found out the reason the story about the article that promotes eating-disordered behavior to young girls got to Kate Harding in the first place was because a reader’s daughter had received the P & G-sponsored pamphlet in school. The pamplet directs the girls to the website.

So not only does P & G get the luxury of a captive audience, they can then guide the girls to more advertising — and to destructive misinformation.

The discussions that the girls are having in the comment sections are just heartbreaking. Many talk of wanting to lose weight (even in discussions on other topics) or about how they have tried purging or stopped eating altogether. They ask each other questions and give each other advice.

Shouldn’t there be an adult or health professional monitoring these discussions to offer help or to direct the girls to resources?

And why are the girls allowed to post their email addresses? 

The rest of the site is not unlike the fourth-grade pamphlet we received in school from the makers of Kotex: parts seem to be written thirty years ago. From Shaving 101:

Shaving isn’t what it used to be. You have things your mom never did, like multi-blade razors that help prevent nicks and cuts. And shave gels that leave you silky smooth and soft.

And from Cosmetically yours:

It wasn’t long ago that being blond was brassy, only a certain kind of woman would dare to paint her fingernails, and your mom would spit into her cake mascara.

I don’t know about you, but I certainly didn’t have to spit into my mascara, and I never saw my mother do it, either. 

There’s also a hair care product selector. See how easy it is to choose a product based on, um, what you need?

Long Term Relationship Collection
Body Envy Collection
Drama Clean Collection
Set Me Up Collection

Beinggirl.com may be a source of some good information for young girls, but how do you know where your daughter will end up on the site? 

And the fact that the offending article is still on the site today is just plain irresponsible.

Pass this information along to every single teacher and parent you know. P & G should not be allowed to promote eating-disordered behaviors to a captive group of girls in our public schools.

And contact P & G through beinggirl.com and ask them to take the article down. It’s the very least they can do.