Wall-E Irony

Like anyone that is not a agenda driven nincompoop we thoroughly loved Wall-E when we saw it last week. After an initial bout of rebellion from our daughter due to the intensive preview (Eve blows something up loudly), it was all systems go and no one left disappointed, least of all the parents (of course, we think all Pixar movies are made for mom and dad).

However, isn't the thought of buying any of this authorized merchandise just a little too ironic in face of the film's premise? Of course, tell that to a 5 year old.

Great Commercial

quite simply one of the coolest commercials I have ever seen. It was banned due to "violence." Of course, this is the kind of violence of 8 year old boys.*

If this had been on during the Super Bowl, people would have been talking about it for days (and copying it). Have fun.



thanks Huffington Post for the link and a list of other commercials.

* if your pacifism or anti-consumerism keeps you from laughing, you are no longer a pacifist. you are fundamentalist.

Deadly Sins for Kids

I felt as if I was reading a diary of my own personal jihad against mainstream child-based consumerism and media when reading this article from our local Independent Weekly entitled, The Seven Deadly Sins of Kid Culture.

His 7 are:

1. Insipidness (i.e. Teletubbies and most children's tv- the reason we call it the boobtube. this prepares kids to become American Idol and Age of Love watching adults)
2. Brattiness (i.e. letting kids watch Simpsons and many "kid movies" that elevate smarting off to adults)
3. Princess-ness (no explanation needed- this is evil and taints a girls view of femininity, gender roles, fairy tale weddings, etc. This is a constant battle in my house)
4. Stereo-typing (not as bad as it used to be, but you still have to be careful- think Jar Jar Binks and old Disney movies, like the cats in Lady in the Tramp)
5. Violence (my kids have a violent steak although they own no toy guns, etc. It is innate, so we must be vigilant. Even some kid movies are Revenge fantasies with that Myth of Redemptive Violence all over them. Needless to say, we have not yet introduced the wonders of the Looney Tunes- maybe soon)
6. Vulgarity (Potty humor is all the rage these days, especially in Hollywood films. Shrek is infamous to bodily functions masked as thoughtful humor. It is tired and shoots for the lowest common denominator, making kids think such outbursts are okay in public- which our son takes advantage of)
7. Sluttiness (yes, the Bratz, which our daughters classmates regularly bring to school and have as themes of parties- our daughter wants this stuff and it is difficult to explain that we don't want our 5 year old dressing like Lindsay Lohan's little sister)

His pet names for these adversaries for each parent (liberal and conservative alike) are Blandy, Bratty, Dippy, Bleedy, Gassy, Trampy and Jar Jar. Interestingly, parenting and child culture is one of those things that can bring people together across the political and religious divides. I find strong agreement on these issues with my ultra liberal hippy friends and my fundamentalist friends. Both groups see the dangers in excessive consumerism and childhood (sadly, the rest of the middle ground seems to miss this).

Ugh

Why I hate the market/consumer driven church. link

(we got a piece of marketing for this in the mail last week, just in time for Easter)

btw- look at the name of the church if you are not local.

I could go on for hours, but choose not to.

Buy (Less) Crap- Give (More)

From Mother Jones comes this tidbit on the Red campaign led by my favorite Saint, Rock Star, Activist Bono...

Bad news for Red, the Bono-inspired, star-studded ad campaign to sell Gap t-shirts, and—oh, yes—raise some money for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Despite all the hype, its total contribution to the Fund so far has
been a paltry 18 million. A Global Fund spokesman explains to Ad Age that this was to be expected: "Red has done as much as we could have hoped for in the short time it has been up and running.... The launch cost of this kind of campaign is going to
be hugely frontloaded."

Translation: Most of the money raised has been blown on ad budgets by Gap,
Motorola, Armani, Apple, and other companies that are taking a cut from selling
Red stuff. To give you a sense of just how big the corporate cut is, for every
special edition Red iPod nano sold, Apple donates just $10.

This isn't the first time an altruistic corporate campaign has been
revealed to be too good to be true—we collected some other examples in our November issue. But there's an easy way to not get snooke(red)—cut out the middleman and give directly to the GlobalCFund. Visit buylesscrap.org to
find out how.

Click on the links above. they are each worth following, especially Buy (Less) Crap which reminds us that shopping is not a solution for human suffering (while I believe the market is wonderful way to promote ethical behavior and change things- it is probably not by buying useless things we do not need which give very little money to important charities).

just because it says "fruit" on the box...

In case you lived in a happy dream world in which you believed advertisers, marketers and packaging, this recently released study will come as no surprise. And, if you have children it will come as no surprised that marketers attempt to take your money and your children's health by appealing to parents with the words "fruit" and kids with the sugar and images on the boxes.

If you have ever tried to explain why Clifford Crunch, which is organic and has Clifford on the package is not disgustingly repulsive, yet Scooby-Doo Cinnamon Marshmallow Cereal which is also promoted by a cartoon character is very bad for your child, you know it is not an easy task.

If you have ever had to explain why the fruit rollups the other kids take to school are bad for them, without declaring those children's parents "bad" or "unhealthy", while the apple and celery you sent are good (yet don't make you a "better" parent) you know this is not easy.

Hopefully schools, churches and others declaring their interest in good parenting and healthy children will publicize studies such as this and attempt to educate parents on healthy food choices for kids. Of course, step 1 for parents is taking the extra moment in the grocery aisle to actually read the ingredients on the package.

Where's the Fruit study

Website