p2pnet - rss feed: Barney, Coke and McDonalds
p2pnet.net OT news:- At the start of the month we did a post marvelling at the fact an old p2pnet Barney the Purple Dinosaur spoof pic was attracting so much attention.
Well, it’s still happening, and we still have no idea what the attraction is. Maybe parents are using it to scare kids in the way Barney scares parents ;P
“Kids will be kids! even if it’s slightly twisted and they’re being preyed upon by corporations who’s only concern is grooming them to be the next wave of consumers,” said one comment post.
Remarked CSMatt:
What I don’t understand is why parents get their kids to watch this smut if they themselves hate it so much.
The target audience (3 to 7) isn’t smart enough t find sources of entertainment that aren’t introduced by the parents themselves (although that may have changed in this new Internet age), so it is the parents who ultimately tune the sets to this stuff for their children to watch, as their peers are not yet smart enough to recommend where to find it (with regards to channel and time, anyway).
Not necessarily.
Kids’ TV is packed with ads, including promos for shows like Barney. So if a kid is watching kids’ TV, he or she may be exposed to Barney without any help from the parents. And once kids, especially young ones, start on about something, watch out. They have no idea if it’s good or bad, and they don’t care. It looks funny, or it might taste good, even if it’s mindless drivel and loaded with potentially harmful additives, speaking of which, says the Canadian Press:
Fifteen companies responsible for 90 per cent of advertising aimed at children promised today to make half their ads more focused on healthy products and active living.
The companies, including McDonald’s and Coca-Cola, won’t face serious repercussions if they don’t live up to the commitment but they will be audited by Advertising Standards Canada.
Nancy Croitoru, president and CEO of Food and Consumer Products of Canada, said the voluntary pledge isn’t about polishing the tarnished image of these companies in the wake of rising child obesity.
Rather it shows the industry is taking its responsibilities seriously, she said.
They’ve never done otherwise. The trouble is, like corporations everywhere, their responsibilities begin and end with shareholders’ returns. Consumer concerns only become meaningful when they start to affect the bottom line.
And if McDonald’s and Coca-Cola are making half their ads, “more focused on healthy products,” that presumably means they’ll keep on promoting the hell out of all the other unhealthy junk they’ll keep on producing.
Meanwhile, the Barney spoof continues to repeatedly show up in p2pnet Popular Pages.
“Anti-Barney humor is a form of humor that targets the children’s television program Barney & Friends,” says the Wikipedia.
“The perception that the show is saccharine or insincere has made the program a target for parody by older children and adolescents all over America and elsewhere, as well as many adults, and a few famous entertainment personalities.
JN
Also See:
p2pnet - Japanese Net-linked suicides, August 25, 2005
spoof pic - Barney pic suddenly popular, April 6, 2007
Canadian Press - Coke, McDonald’s vow healthy ads, April 16, 2007
If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at thIs the endSurvey: How Did Copyright Infringement Become Equated with Robbery? (of the Net) nigh?zze University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
