I know, in the scheme of things this is small potatoes. But it irks me immensely. From today's Washington Post:
BusRadio, a start-up company in Massachusetts, wants to pipe into school buses around the country a private radio network that plays music, public-service announcements, contests and, of course, ads, aimed at kids as they travel to and from school....The company is the brainchild of Michael Yanoff and Steven Shulman, the same two executives who created Cover Concepts, a company that has provided schools with millions of free book covers -- full of bold, colorful ads for Kellogg's, McDonalds, Calvin Klein, Nike and other major national advertisers. Now owned by comic-book king Marvel Enterprises, Cover Concepts says it reaches 30 million school-age children in 43,000 U.S. public schools, which receive no funding for distributing the products.
Scum. Pure and simple, greedhead scum.
5 comments:
But normal.
Cartoons are no longer children's entertainment but 30 minute advertisments for toys and games.
I've caught some Saturday morning cartoons, and the animation sucks, the storylines are pedestrian...cartoons used to be clever and mini works of art.
Not anymore.
When my kids were just toddlers, I do have to admit a friend and I pondered the possibilities of starting up a child's only radio station. Our reasoning was because both of us on several occasions had forgotten the kiddie cd's in the house, but needed to settle down crying babies. Being able to switch to a radio station would have been VERY handy. In the absence of such a station, my children grew to love MY music at a very young age. lol
I know that was a huge detour from what you're getting at in this post. I can't fathom what the parents will go through when their kids come home with even MORE wants. That's all TV/Radio does for them. Puts ideas in their heads and it's all so commercialized (literally). Not a brilliant idea, I do quite agree with you.
Now tell me to get off the computer so I can do something productive for the day. :)
Hi, Radmila -- I hadn't heard from you before. Thanks for commenting. I like what you said.
Just the other night, I mentioned to my wife that I was astonished, a few months ago, to pick up a Superman comic and realize how bland the drawing style was, compared to what I remember -- I wondered how kids could like it. Only recently did I realize that its like asking a blind kid if they miss sight -- the kids today don't miss that older, more artistic style because they'd never seen it. But at least the current crop of cartoons and whatnot is something you can shut off. In-bus ads can't be shut off. The kids would get it almost subliminally.
I can see someone saying 'Well, if its the only way to make money for the school....' I realize funding schools is a problem. But this is not the answer. This is reprehensible, immoral, and wrong.
Rach, I do like your idea, and I'd subscribe to it. Though if its going to be your taste in music, perhaps I'd better find out what that is, first....(g)
Rach, I do like your idea, and I'd subscribe to it. Though if its going to be your taste in music, perhaps I'd better find out what that is, first....(g)
It would have been children's music. Mother Goose songs, Mini Bops, various children show theme songs, etc.
My music, on the other hand .. according to my hubby .. can make even the most wired person fall asleep.
I used to enjoy making variations to The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round. Sometimes my wife would ask me to stop, not because she didn't like them, but because she didn't want our daughter insisting in day care that one of the verses was, for example: "The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round, Round and Round, Round and Round, The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round, Except Of Course When They Fall Off...The Driver on the Bus goes Up and Down, Up and Down, Up and Down, The Driver on the Bus Goes Up and Down, We HAVE to Get Him a Chair"
My taste in music is similarly quiet, as a rule. Right now its piano and violin playing Amazing Grace; a few moments ago, they were playing Bach. (Which reminds me of the writeup I heard of to the effect of 'so and so played Chopin; Chopin lost.'
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