For the week of 5.1.06   

(Part 2 of 2)

Last Week's Culture Watch documented some of the increasing interconnectivity of corporations and their targeting of children. This week provides further examples of corporate greed aimed at exploiting children's innocence in the quest for greater profits.

Nickelodeon has been the top-ranked daytime basic cable network for over a decade. It has consistently defeated competitors such as Cartoon Network and the Disney Channel in television ratings. In 2005 Nickelodeon owned ALL of the top 30 TV programs among 2-11 year olds on both broadcast and basic cable.  But top TV ratings are not enough for the burgeoning Nickelodeon empire. After a multimillion-dollar investment in formats ranging from the Internet to cellphone downloads and podcasting, Nickelodeon is no longer merely a cable channel. It is now a children's Internet destination, a growing film company (as witness the multiple Rugrats and Wild Thornberries movies), a video-on-demand platform, a podcast creator and wireless-content provider, all while planning 254 new episodes for the Nickelodeon cable channel in 2006-07.  Nickelodeon President Cyma Zarghami has stated that her company is also preparing to create content for video podcasting and will open its own animation lab in Burbank. As proof of Nickelodeon's expansion, its new TV schedule will feature series that were originally developed in other media before becoming TV programs: Tak and the Power of JuJu originated as a THQ-Nickelodeon-Avalanche Software video game; Mr. Meaty grew out of puppet shorts done for TurboNick broadband; and the preschool-targeted series Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!  began as a 5-minute video podcast. The network also plans to sell TV episodes via iTunes for the Apple iPod. (HollywoodReporter.com, March 10, 2006; TVWeek.com, April 10, 2006)

"It's important for Nick to be everywhere children are consuming video." --  Nickelodeon president Cyma Zarghami (HollywoodReporter.com, March 10, 2006)

But this is only part of the planned expansion of Nickelodeon's empire. In 2001 Nickelodeon began publishing Nick Jr. Family Magazine, a publication for parents with preschool-age Nick Jr. viewers. 2005 saw the opening of the first Nickelodeon Family Suites Hotel in Orlando, Florida. Located near Walt Disney World, the hotel brings whole families into a building and an experience dominated by Nickelodeon imagery and icons. And Nickelodeon is now able to promote its theme parks and hotels, as it has also purchased GoCityKids.com, an Internet guide which aids parents in locating children's events and activities. (HollywoodReporter.com, March 10, 2006; TVWeek.com, April 10, 2006)

With the expansion of so many rival networks into other fields, CBS has announced plans to turn over control of its fall Saturday morning programming to DIC Entertainment. DIC intends each of the new shows to cross-promote with a Web site; for example, the new cartoon program Horseland will be based around an existing online community of children horse and dog enthusiasts. As part of the deal, DIC is purchasing the airtime from DIC and CBS and hoping to sell advertising to the target 6- to 12-year-old audience on TV, online and in so-called "new media;"  DIC plans to eventually  offer "mobisodes" from each program  for viewing on cellphones. (AdAge.com, March 31, 2006)

Some consumers, concerned about the increasing influence of corporations on America's children, have begun taking action. Under pressure from several consumer advocacy organizations, in September of 2005 The National Advertising Review Council, the marketing industry's self-regulatory body which hears complaints about ads, asked its Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU) to examine the use of cartoon characters in ads. CARU in turn formed a task force to review the appropriate use of cartoon characters and product placement within children's programming. (AdAge.com, September 16, 2005) Such action has not stopped either product placement or the use of cartoons to sell products to children, however.

"There is no appropriate use of cartoon characters to sell anything to kids…It's the government, not corporations, who should be the guardians of public health." -- Susan Linn, Harvard psychologist and founder of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (AdAge.com, September 16, 2005)

In perhaps the ultimate form of merchandising aimed at impressionable, technology-using youngsters, the new website StarStyle allows fans of TV shows,  including American Idol,  What I Like About You and daytime soap operas As the World, Guiding Light and The Young and the Restless to buy clothing, furniture and other items they see on the programs. StarStyle is partnered with entertainment companies Sony, Warner Bros., ABC, Procter & Gamble and FremantleMedia and 19 Entertainment, the producers of American Idol, and stores such as Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Macy's, Brooks Brothers, Gap, Old Navy, Best Buy and Barnes & Noble. The site allows visitors to shop by program, product category or brand name. They can pick a character on a featured TV show and StarStyle will display associated products that can be purchased through links to other online sites, then click on products to purchase them. "If you like the couch that people are arguing on Real World, you can buy it," said a company spokesman. (AP, March 20, 2006)

In this ever-increasing tide of child exploitation, the stakes are much higher than merely ad dollars or promotion of specific products. Media programmers have grown into vast conglomerates.  Theme parks, hotels, movie theaters, stage shows, magazines, cellphone downloads, Internet websites and an unending flood of toys and licensed products featuring favorite characters have caused names like Nickelodeon and Disney to become worldwide brands. Building brand loyalty at an early age has become crucial to these corporations' continued success – and profit. To claim that such corporations "brainwash" young viewers may seem melodramatic;  but the advertising professionals and media bosses behind these international mega-corporations are not laughing as they contemplate with utmost seriousness how best to impose upon children unquestioning lifelong loyalty to their "brand."

"In order for us to reach our long-term strategic goals, we need to win over the next generation." --  Shane Kim, general manager of Microsoft Game Studios (AdAge.com, March 16, 2006)

Culture Watch - Entertainment Industry News

The Parents Television Council - www.parentstv.org