Strollerderby : PSA

MIchelle Obama Visits Sesame Street

SunnyChanel — Wed, 06 May 2009 16:30:00 GMT

Michelle Obama apparently knows the way to Sesame Street. The first lady, while in New York, taped a public service announcement with her new pal Elmo. It was a ‘sunny day’ indeed. Obama said that the appearance was "probably the best thing I've done at the White House."

When making an address at the United Nations, Obama said, "I'm thrilled to be here but I was just at Sesame Street - I'm sorry…and I never thought I'd be on Sesame Street with Elmo and Big Bird, and I was thrilled. I'm still thrilled. I'm on a high."

The public service announcement was part of Sesame Workshop's Healthy Habits For Life initiative. In the PSA, Obama and Elmo discussed “eating right, exercising regularly and being a healthy and positive role model for children.”

Source

Does PSA Blame Parents for their Daughters Being Raped?

JeanneSager — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:29:00 GMT

The public service announcement warning parents not to buy their daughters alcohol because of the heightened risk for sexual abuse for drunk teens is a total of 30-seconds long. But the Queensland Government in Brisbane, Australia has been drawing harsh critiscm around the globe for putting the blame in the wrong place - the victim.

Opening with a girl's stricken face as she weeps and fights off an attacker in a dark alley, the commercial follows the girl's night in reverse. It backs out of the alley, away from the guy into a party of teens drinking, then back to the girl's house where Dad hands her a box of booze and waves bye bye. "Don't kid yourself," an ominous voice says, "buy your children alcohol and they could pay the price."

Feministing, Jezebel and dozens of others have taken up bashing the Aussies for the short, charging the ad makers with blaming girls for getting raped and their parents for putting them in that situation. "I think what is upsetting about this is that it perpetuates the belief that rape is a young woman's fault and that if parents buy their daughters alcohol they are putting them at risk of rape," says Feministing blogger Samhita. "What about telling young men to not rape drunk women? That is what the focus of the PSA should be. Perhaps another conversation about youth and alcohol consumption is needed, but let's not tangle the issues."

I agree that there should be more education for guys about a girl's right to say no. But I think it's Samhita who is mixing the messages here. This is about parents not taking care of their kids. It's about a smarmy smiling dad (watch the video and you'll see it) handing his daughter a big box of booze, putting her in a car full of teenagers with said alcohol and waving without a care in the world. Rape isn't the only horrible thing that can happen to her out there.

Unfortunately, rape is a reality, and there is only so much parents can do to protect their daughters. The U.S. Department of Justice has surmised a woman is raped here in the states every two minutes. It can happen in broad daylight or a dark alleyway. It can happen with alcohol or without. And you don't have to tell me that girls who undergo some sort of sexual abuse often feel like it's our fault.

Which is why arming our daughters to protect them from some day being raped is part of our jobs. Not because they're the weaker sex. Not because they're doing something wrong. Because it's something that can, and shouldn't have to happen. Add alcohol to any situation where boys and girls co-mingle, and statistics show the risk of a rape occuring increases. The U.S. Department of Justice Violence Against Women report figures 45 percent of all rapes involve alcohol - which could mean the victim or the attacker. The numbers include adult women, but considering two in six rape victim are under 18, there are plenty of teen girls being raped where alcohol is a factor.

Not because they're bad kids or because they asked for it but because they lost their ability to function because they drank too much. They lost their ability to protect themselves from the dangers that are out there, and guess who failed to protect them? Their parents. The ones who sent them to a party with a bunch of alcohol and no education on what it can do.

So, yes, I do put a portion of blame on the parents. Which was the point of the PSA to begin with - to teach them not to provide ther kids with free alcohol, to teach their kids about the affects alcohol will have on the body - including the risk of blackout, the risk of losing the physical strength to push off an attacker, and the risk that someone else who's drunk may have their inhibitions reduced to the point where they'll do something stupid. Like rape a girl.

In fact, the PSA shows a girl being abused, but the narrator says "67 percent of teenagers have been abused or assaulted whilst under the influence of alcohol." She says "your children." She doesn't say girls. She doesn't say daughters. It's an advertisement about protecting our girls and our boys, teaching girls to protect themselves, teaching boys they're not allowed to use alcohol as an excuse.

It's an advertisement that puts the responsibility for kids in their parents' hands. And when they drop the ball, the blame belongs with them.

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Xtina and Max Rock the Vote

Brett Singer — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 21:04:00 GMT

Remember Rock the Vote? How it was supposed to be a game-changer, bringing all these young people to the polls? And then George W. Bush got elected two times in a row?

Well, that hasn't stopped celebrities from using their fame to get us to the polls. Christina Aguilera literally wraps her son Max in the American flag and sings about those Purple Mountains Majesty.

I'm a big fan of voting, and I agree with Rock The Vote's mission. I just wonder how much it really does. I mean, is someone going to say, "Well, Xtina told me I should Rock The Vote. Well, dammit, I'm going to!"?

I guess every little bit helps. Here's the video. It's way better than Puffy's "Vote or Die" campaign.

image: RockTheVote

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Breast Feeding Makes Smarter Kids

Cole Gamble — Wed, 07 May 2008 19:00:00 GMT

According to a study of nearly 14,000 children, increased breast feeding in the first months of life can raise a child’s verbal IQ. The study found that breastfed six-year-olds scored an average 7.5 points higher on the verbal IQ than the control group.

So that’s it, the final piece of evidence that absolutely everyone should breast feed, right?

On a personal note, my wife didn’t breastfeed our two children. It just didn’t work out, but they are healthy, strong and whip smart. We did try to eek some breast milk into their formulas, but regular old breastfeeding wasn’t happening. But say you didn’t breeastfeed out loud and you might get quieted by a hiss of disapproval. Breastfeeding has becoming a very important issue. I think perhaps there was once a backlash against women who breastfeed, that breastfeeding was to be kept quiet and behind closed doors, that it was passé. Now I think we have overcorrected, that there is a backlash to the backlash. We live in a time in when we have made breastfeeding the penultimate parenting issue. It’s not. Not breastfeeding does not make you a bad parent. I do not believe, like a certain PSA asserted, that the choice to not breastfeed is tantamount to a pregnant woman riding a mechanical bull. That’s not a PSA, that’s just fear mongering propaganda. Is breastfeeding good? Yes, that would appear to be the case but the social pressure to do so far outweighs the benefits. Even studies like the one mentioned here can not determine if it is the breast milk that makes the brainy difference, or if perhaps unrelated qualities like nurturing and attentiveness that might just be common in the type of mother who chooses to breastfeed.

How about you? How important is breast feeding to you?

Check Out the Rack on This 10-year Old

Adrienne Martini — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 21:00:00 GMT

This Jezebel post about the PSAs for the Family Violence Partnership in Milwaukee has been in my to-do queue for a couple of days now. I keep clicking on the link, looking at the posters, blinking, then wandering off to do something that doesn't make my head ache.

What I can't figure out -- and if you can offer some insight, I'd appreciate it -- is who these ads are pitched to. Your average pedophile gets off on young girls looking like girls. The boobs scare them, if research accurate. So the campaign can't be for them. Besides, most pedophiles are aware that they are doing something wrong, right?

So let's narrow it down -- who looks at pre-pubescent girls and sees a sex object? Slightly post-pubescent boys are near the top of the list -- but that hardly seems fair. Most pubescent boys see just about anything as a sex object. And most manage to not act on their impulses.

So are large institutions the target for the campaign? The fashion industry? Professional gymnastics? Child beauty pageants? Advertising itself?

No, it all seems too meta. Is this just a crappy PSA? Or is there something else going on that I can't see?

Weekly Check-Up: Tommy the Tomato Brings, Er, Fruit To Life?

Kelly Mills — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 13:31:00 GMT

You know the old PSA trick of animating inanimate objects to make them friendly and appealing for kids? Like, the toothbrush comes to life and tells you how to brush, or perhaps even a forlorn little bill sits on Capitol Hill waiting to be made into law. Sometimes I find these animated things scarier than clowns, and sometimes if there's a catchy song involved, they become part of my fond Saturday morning memories. So I guess it's up to you to decide where Tommy the Tomato will fall in this. My kid likes his website. He's a tomato created by a nutritionist to educate kids about healthy eating, because of course "childhood obesity" is right up there with "ebola" and "nuclear". There's no singing, and his friend Barry the Banana looks...well...full of nutrients.

Let's hope Tommy comes out quickly as a fruit (not vegetable) and that he can teach kids valuable lessons about antioxidants and whole foods and stuff like that. But there's a danger in anthropomorphizing things: While Tommy is advocating healthy eating, isn't he also promoting the consumption of his own kind? Isn't he in fact endorsing cannibalism?