Fed Up With Food Marketing to Kids? Nosh On Food MythBusters Film

Sept. 21, 2013 Tired of the $2 billion/year endless barrage of hard sell food advertising hawking toxic crud to children to turn them into life long consumers? You’re about to get some ammo in the media battle for kids’ hearts and minds… On September 25, 2013, the online premiere of the 6-minute bite sized short animated film Food MythBusters.org promises to expose how “Big … [Read more...]

Back to School: Using Branding as a Media Literacy Lesson

August 20, 2015 Update: More Back to School branding boondoggles...Remember when the G-force Gatorade tribe was caught  red-handed with their marketing machinations of hawking sugar hydration to students over regular water? Well, they're at it again, this time sneaking their sports drinks message into schools as 'hydration education' which is perhaps one of the biggest shilling … [Read more...]

Toy Joy or Consumption Junction? Critical Thinking for Holiday Fun

Dec. 7, 2016 Update Why not turn holiday gifting into a media literacy opportunity? Tomorrow I'll be signing up once again for Samaritan House sorting and stocking for kids less fortunate and I can't help but think it'll end up being a blog post about what toys are being gifted and how... From gendered cues to ages and stages, I'm sure it will prove enlightening as I … [Read more...]

It’s Veteran’s Day: If I Have To Tell You One More Time…

Nov. 11, 2011 As schools let out for the Friday Veteran’s Day holiday, I double-dog dare you to ask each child why they get the day off and submit the answers here for a positive parenting prize... ...The helpful new book by Amy McCready, “If I Have to Tell You One More Time…” Founder of Positive Parenting Solutions, author McCready is partnering with Blue Star Families, … [Read more...]

Deconstructing Spongebob, Pt2: A Preschool Parenting Lens

Sept. 20, 2011 In part one, the prelude to this post, I tried to frame the notion of critical thinking skills as a sphere to hold up to the light and rotate slowly instead of banging out opinions in point-counterpoint opposite spectrum and debate polarity. Partly that's because the two focal points I was covering (CCFC's rub with Spongebob Spongebob preschool merchandising … [Read more...]