Even though I tried to disguise it, I still sound like I was up at five a.m. for my interview for The Guardian’s Tech Weekly Podcast. In the Virtual Worlds Special, host Aleks Krotoski, characterizing Corporate Babysitter as a “watchdog blog,” asked me what I thought about the explosion of virtual worlds for kids. The segment begins around 12:30.

Before the interview, I asked PEM members to share their thoughts. Most of the parents I heard from acknowledged some benefits of virtual worlds (like practicing problem-solving and working through real-like situations) but do not allow unmoderated or unlimited access. They expressed concerns about embedded advertising (or product placement), privacy, and online safety.

Thanks to those parents who responded to me and to those who recommeded Club Penguin. We ventured in and have been pleased with it so far. As I’ve said, I’d much rather pay for access than to use an advertising supported site.

My main concern about virtual worlds is when a corporation uses one in order to hook kids into brand loyalty at an early age.

I also question the VWs that take advantage of a child’s emotional attachments. I can’t be the only parent who had to deal with a child’s shock — and then panic — when she found out she would never see her precious virtual Webkinz again unless she gave them some more money. What real-life value does that teach?

Today I have the privilege of joining a panel presentation for a group of Walden University doctoral students. Walden is the oldest accredited online university and the academic offices are located right here in Minneapolis. The students, staff, and faculty are meeting on the U of M campus for their summer residency.

If you came to the session today and you’d like more information about Parents for Ethical Marketing, you can read this post or explore the website. If you’d like to stay in touch, sign up for our monthly newsletter and action alerts.

Here are the posts that I discussed today:

Children’s hospital naming rights go to . . . Abercrombie & Fitch?
BuzzFeed
A thousands words (Hooters toddler t-shirt)
Little girls gone wild (Review of The Lolita Effect at Salon.com)
Target Corporation assumes feminism is dead; dismisses bloggers
Target tells a blogger to go away (New York Times)
Quick Hit: Let P&G Know What You Think of Their Website for Girls (Shapely Prose)
Call for action: Site for adolescent teens promotes eating disorders (The F-Word)
Beinggirl.com promotes eating-disordered behavior, isn’t so safe or credible

If you’d like to learn more about blogging, social media, and nonprofits, be sure to check out Beth’s Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media.

Questions? Ask in the comments or drop me a note at lisa (at) parentsforethicalmarketing (dot) org.

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.

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.

A little over a year ago I was talking about my crazy nonprofit idea with Chris Berger from Berger Brands. He had just seen Anne Elizabeth Moore at PUSH 2007, thought she was fantastic and that I would really dig her book, Hey Kidz, Buy This Book: A Radical Primer on Corporate and Governmental Propaganda and Artistic Activism for Short People.

Chris was right. A little over a year later and I’m helping promote Moore and her book Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing, and the Erosion of Integrity.

Moore, who will be in Minneapolis to present at the National Conference on Media Reform, will be reading at Arise! Bookstore, 2441 Lyndale Avenue S., on Sunday, June 8, at 7:00 p.m.

She will also discuss her role as executive director of the Anti-Advertising Agency’s Foundation for Freedom.

The mission of the Anti-Advertising Agency Foundation For Freedom is to bring the best and brightest former ad pros together once a year; inspire young people to leave the craft; focus the industry and public at large on the profoundly negative social justice impacts of advertising; inspire problem-solving methods focused on the most important issues facing the real world; and shine a light on the influence the advertising, media, and marketing industries has on dwindling public space, atrophying human relationships, and the destruction of democracy.

The event is free. Invitation also available on Facebook.

A quick “hello and welcome” to anyone who is visiting from the Nick & Josh Podcast or who found out about us at the May Day Festival in Minneapolis. New readers might want to read this PEM Primer I wrote for a conference I attended last month.

Ariah Fine interviewed me last week for the Nick & Josh Podcast. We met at the Birchwood Cafe and talked about parenting in a consumer-driven world. I also spilled the real, true story of the Target snow-angel ad fiasco. Talking with Ariah and Mindy, his wife, was truly delightful.

Ariah was also kind enough to stop by our information table at the May Day Festival yesterday. We were right be the lake and it was a *tad* windy, so I spent most of the day wearing my winter down parka.

A common reaction from passers-by after reading our sign was “Good luck with that!” Seems people have given up or given in to the idea that marketing and advertising are inherently dishonest and that there’s nothing to be done about it.

On the other hand, I was inspired by the people who stopped to talk:

– A young woman in her mid-twenties who talked about how the manufactured images of thin girls that surrounded her as an adolescent contributed to her eating disorder (she’s now recovering);

– A high school teacher who tries to reach kids through media literacy courses but finds that it’s not enough to combat the marketing machine;

– A woman who works in an adolescent psych ward who signed up saying she sees the associated problems “all the time;”

– A woman who pulled her child out of preschool because she didn’t want to pay someone to introduce her five-year-old to childhood consumerism;

 – A college gymnastics coach, concerned about binge drinking, wondering why radio stations air ads for “all-you-can-drink” nights at bars; and

– A father of four, citing books being sold in schools through Scholastic (not prompted by me), talking about the value of addressing media messages with his kids head-on.

There were many more. The most motivating feedback was from several people who simply said, “Thank you for taking this on. It is needed.”

Thank you for your encouraging words.