Baby Einstein Refunds

Congratulations to the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) !

Note: for a list of studies looking at the effects of TV on very young children see: http://www.tvsmarter.com/documents/young.html 

CCFC successfully pressured “the Walt Disney Company to offer a full refund to anyone who purchased a Baby Einstein DVD in the last five years.”

This is in addition to their ”2006 Federal Trade Commission complaint” which forced Disney to stop making false claims that Baby Einstein DVDs were educational.

From The New York Times article on the Baby Einstein Refunds:

Last year, lawyers threatened a class-action lawsuit for unfair and deceptive practices unless Disney agreed to refund the full purchase price to all who bought the videos since 2004. “The Walt Disney Company’s entire Baby Einstein marketing regime is based on express and implied claims that their videos are educational and beneficial for early childhood development,” a letter from the lawyers said, calling those claims “false because research shows that television viewing is potentially harmful for very young children.”

Perhaps “Baby Einstein” should be renamed “Baby Bozo” !

But it was the comments that were the most fun, here are a few that I especially liked:

TV Brain Wave Published Studies

One more new page:

http://www.tvsmarter.com/documents/brainwaves3.html

TV Brain Wave Published Studies

from the textbook

The Neuropsychology of Everyday Life: Issues in Development and Rehabilitation

December 31, 1990

Edited by David E. Tupper and Keith D. Cicerone

Chapter 4 “Cognition and Watching Television”

written by John J. Burns and Daniel R. Anderson

Note: References listed on pages 106-108

New tvSmarter Pages

I’ve added a few new pages to tvSmarter.com, hope you’ll check them out.

Playing versus TV

http://www.tvsmarter.com/documents/playing.html

Young Children (babies & toddlers) and TV

http://www.tvsmarter.com/documents/young.html

My Democracy page had gotten too unwieldy, so I divvied it up into:

Democracy & TV

http://www.tvsmarter.com/documents/democracy.html

Civil Society & TV

http://www.tvsmarter.com/documents/civil.html

Propaganda, the News & TV

http://www.tvsmarter.com/documents/propaganda.html

Covert Propaganda & TV

http://www.tvsmarter.com/documents/propaganda2.html

Torture & TV

http://www.tvsmarter.com/documents/torture.html

Please let me know if I should change and/or add anything or any other suggestion.

Dove Campaign for Real Beauty

Jon Hanson has written an excellent takedown of the “Dove Campaign for Real Beauty”.

Here are a few excerpts:

Several weeks ago, as part of its much lauded “Dove Campaign for Real Beauty,” Unilever released “Onslaught,” a video (above) examining disturbing images of women in beauty-industry advertising. The video ends with this admonition to parents: “Talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does.”

But is talking “to your daughter before the beauty industry does” an effective solution?

It seems peculiar, therefore, that Dove would offer a film demonstrating the ubiquitous attack of the beauty industry that ends with the suggestion to parents that they are the ones to make a difference by simply talking to their kids. If the industry is the problem, it strikes me as odd that the parents are supposed to be the solution.

Hanson, makes a very interesting point, about parallels with Philip Morris ad campaigns.

Telling parents to talk to their children is not unusual as a public relations Philip Morris Talk to your Kids; They’ll Listen strategy. For instance, Philip Morris, among other companies, has long been pushing that message in its “public service” ads, particularly since the industry began to face a real threat of tort liability in the 1990s. The message seems public-spirited, but most industry analysts believe that Philip Morris is delivering, not a public-service message to parents, but a responsibility-shifting message to the public: kids smoke because of uninvolved or irresponsible parents, not because of anything that Philip Morris has done.

Cold, Dead Hands

"from my cold, dead hands."

No one is arguing that TVs should be banned, but for too many people giving up the remote (even for one week) could only happen if it was dragged from their “cold, dead hands“.

Here’s a sad story:

How much do white Americans think it costs to be black in our society, given the problems associated with racial bias and prejudice?

The answer, it appears, is not much.

When white Americans were asked to imagine how much they would have to be paid to live the rest of their lives as a black person, most requested relatively low amounts, generally less than $10,000.

In contrast, study participants said they would have to be paid about $1 million to give up television for the rest of their lives.

P.S. Thanks to my hubby for the great photoshopping job!

Sept 09 Turn-off Week

Sept 2009 Turnoff Week

 

Coming right up is this year’s September Turn-off week: Sept 20 – 26

If you would like to make a donation to support this worthy endeavor (or order a kit) please write a check to:

    Center for SCREEN-TIME Awareness
    and sent to: PO Box 312
    South Salem, NY 10590

 

Here are a couple of blog post on this upcoming turn-off week:

“Turnoff Week – September 2009″ – Unplug Your Kids

“Turn Off Your TV and Turn On Your Imagination” – Green Parent Chicago

 Also, Screentime is helping to get the word out on the CDC’s new program “Act Early“. 

For extra inspiration see: Turn-off Tips