Raising a humane child amidst the world's problems is incredibly challenging, but add to that the marketing of violence to young children, and it can seem an insurmountable task. The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) and 3,000 parents recently contacted the Federal Trade Commission and asked them to "stop the film industry from targeting young children with their advertising for PG-13 films."According to the CCFC, in the last 6 months nearly 5,000 advertisements for five films the CCFC deems violent, and their related products, have been aired on kids' TV stations. The five films in question include X-Men Origins: Wolverine; Star Trek; Terminator Salvation; Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen; and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Not only were ads played during times that young kids are likely to see them, but some of the films have partnered with Burger King to market kids toys, and some of the merchandise for the movies is for children as young as two.
CCFC members Mark and Amanda Lindberg said:
“It is not that romanticizing war is new, our literature and movies have done that for years. The difference now is that we market movies with an intense level of violence to young children with toys that allow young children to recreate violent scenes of which they should never have been aware. In essence, we have taken the movies from ‘war is hell’ to ‘war is play.’”
This issue provides a great opportunity to explore the impact of violence on youth, of what's "too violent" for what age kids, of why marketers would target young kids for products from a movie created for teens, of personal responsibility versus corporate responsibility, of citizen activism, and so on. And, if you're a parent, you may want to voice your own views to the FTC and/or to CCFC.
~ Marsha
Image courtesy of chanchan222 via Creative Commons.
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