Take Action
Let's Celebrate MOM's!
We’ve all been there. It’s the end of a long day. We’re wheeling our young child through a grocery aisle gauntlet of cartoon characters beckoning from boxes of food we don’t want to buy. She demands an offending product. Maybe we say no despite her nagging. Maybe we give in. Whatever we do, our day is that much harder because corporate marketers—using one of their most powerful weapons: the media icons beloved by young children—have injected themselves between us and our kids. But it doesn’t... Read more...
Protect Massachusetts Students' Privacy
The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education plans to help corporations profit from schoolchildren’s most sensitive and confidential information. Massachusetts is one of seven states committed to participate in the development and pilot testing of inBloom, a Gates Foundation initiative. Student information—including your child’s name, home address, email address, test scores, racial identity, economic and special education status, and possibly even detailed disciplinary... Read more...
Tell Rahm Emanuel: No Coke Ads on Residential Recycling Bins
If we don’t act now, the steady erosion of ad-free personal space and the escalation of unavoidable marketing will get a lot worse. This week, the City of Chicago announced that Coca-Cola will donate 50,000 blue bins for household recycling. Sounds generous, but it’s really a cleverly disguised purchase of advertising space. In exchange, the bin lids will feature images of Coca-Cola products. It’s great that Chicago is expanding its recycling services, but residents should be able to... Read more...
Tell United: No Media Violence on Overhead Screens
A family encountered a common problem recently on a United Airlines flight from Denver to Baltimore—they felt the in-flight movie playing on overhead screens was inappropriate for their young children. United was showing Alex Cross, rated PG-13 for “violence including disturbing images, sexual content, language, drug references, and nudity.” The film features “a homicide detective (who) is pushed to the brink of his moral and physical limits as he tangles with a ferociously skilled... Read more...
2013 School Bus Ad Action Center
The commercialization of our schools could get a lot worse in the coming months. Currently, only Texas, Arizona, Colorado, Tennessee, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Utah, Nevada, and New Mexico allow advertising on the exterior of school buses. Some others allow ad inside school buses. But more states are considering overturning their long-standing prohibitions on school bus ads in a misguided attempt to solve their budget deficits. The financial plight of schools is extremely worrisome, but... Read more...
Tell the MPAA: Stop the Marketing of Violence to Young Children
The tragic shootings in Newtown have shined a spotlight on video game violence, but violent media is marketed to children long before they encounter Call of Duty. Since 2008, thousands of parents and the staff of the Federal Trade Commission have joined CCFC in calling for the Motion Picture Association of America to stop companies from marketing violent PG-13 movies to preschoolers. To date the MPAA has refused to act. We're pleased that MPAA chairman (and former senator) Chris Dodd... Read more...
Spread the Word! Laugh & Learn Apptivity Monkey Named Worst Toy of 2012
And the TOADY goes to . . . the Fisher-Price™ Laugh & Learn™ Apptivity™ Monkey. Read more about why CCFC members voted this toy as worst toy of the year. And then spread the word so no one in your family ends up giving or getting creepy monkey with the iPhone in his tummy this holiday season. If you're on Facebook, click here to share. If you're on Twitter, click here to tweet. (To see why CCFC members voted the way they did, click here. To see the nominees, click here.) Read more...
Tell the FTC: Stand Up for Children's Privacy
UPDATE 12/19/12: Today the FTC announced an important update to the rules that protect children's privacy online. The FTC's action means that kids' apps and websites will not be able to engage in "behavioral marketing" by using cookies, IP addresses, or mobile device IDs to track children's online activities without parental consent. Companies now must also obtain parental consent to collect and use a child's photos, videos, and geo-location. This is an important victory for... Read more...
Let's Stop Channel One
For nearly 25 years, Channel One News has been the nation’s most pernicious in-school advertiser, wasting taxpayer-funded class time by showing student-targeted commercials to a captive audience of schoolchildren. And now, the network is escalating its daily commercial assault on 5.5 million students by turning entire broadcasts into ads and by encouraging children to visit inappropriate and disreputable websites. Please join CCFC in calling on your state department of education to... Read more...