An illustration of the title character and her cat, Custard.
Strawberry Shortcake was created in the late 1970s by the American Greetings card company. As the character became a popular fad among young girls, the company expanded the Strawberry Shortcake product line to include dolls, posters, stationary, stickers, clothing, games, etc. Beginning in 1980 Strawberry Shortcake animated specials began to air on television, joining the controversial trend of program-length commercials designed to advertise such product lines to children. To examine the claims of Gary Cross (“Spinning Out of Control”) about the negative effects of program-length commercials or PLCs, I watched the first episode of the Strawberry Shortcake television series.
The beloved board game has a longer history than you might think! Originally, the concept for “The Checkered Game of Life” was developed by the successful lithographer Milton Bradley, who was famous for his portraits of President Lincoln. In 1860 however, when Mr. President decided to grow a beard, Bradley’s clean-shaven representation was not longer favored by the American public. Looking for a new way to support himself, Bradley inadvertently developed the first of many in his successful board game business. He sold 45,000 copies of “The Checkered Game of Life” in one year. Although no price was listed for the initial cost of the game, it currently sells for around $20.
It was in 1960 that the current version of the game was developed by Reuben Klamer, as a celebration product for the 100th anniversary of the Milton Bradley Company. In 1984, the game became part of the world’s largest toy company Hasboro, when the Bradley company became a division in the company’s empire. In 1992, the board game received further modifications with the addition of “Life Tiles”-a type of chance card available upon landing on certain spaces on the board, rewarding players for things such as recycling, learning CPR, or saying “no” to drugs. According to the game description on the Hasboro website, in The Game of Life, “Take that path and see how many kids you’ll have! Will you venture down the risky road where fortunes can be won… and lost? Do whatever it takes to retire in style with the most wealth at the end of the game.”
This description provided by the manufacturer, depicts the goals of the game as being those that many associate with white middle-class families. Although the game supports Gary Cross’ view that toys should prepare the child for real life situations, the game of life seems to focus on a narrow category of the child population. With pink pegs and blue pegs, the player initially must identify themselves as an organized form of gender separation and continues to be rewarded throughout the game for marriage, children, and other “desired” qualities of the American Dream. It is clear that this board game helps in exposing children to situations they could expect, however as many toy products and popular culture through out history, those situations simulate only white middle-class.
Everyone knows that with getting older, we are destined to grow and mature and have our tastes change. This is why as 21 and 22 year olds, we do not still play with Barbies, but have other hobbies. This is explains why, when we go out to dinner, our parents no longer have to order our food for us because we know what we would like to eat- vegetables and all!
Looking back at what I was into as a child and what I am into now… Wow! I would say that has changed most of all though, my sweet tooth. Because yes, I do still play Marvel Super Hero video games and I do have some Justin Bieber songs on my iPod. However you will not find Nerds Rope, Warheads, Sour Patch Kids or Fruit Roll-Ups anywhere near my pantry.
I do still love chocolate and the occasional cup cake, I’ll even drink a Capri-Sun when they are available. But I have definitely left the childish tart candies and sweets in my childhood.
Although in my job as a preschool teacher, I still love to reward children with these silly candies. The bright colors they turn tongues, some of them are now loud and crackle, some of them still take only the bravest to eat because of their severe sourness. I have not yet joined the rest of the adult race in viewing these crazy candies as junk, and I did not agree with all of the opinions presented in Allison James’ article: “Confections, Concoctions, and Conceptions”. I think that sweets such as the ones listed above, are what help add to the realm of innocence and fun of childhood. Halloween is one of the best holidays for youngsters, not necessarily because of the costume but because of all the candy that they get to acquire, and parents loosen their tight grip on the candy limit for one night out of the year.
Instead of labeling these treats with negative connotations, adults should just accept that children are going to be attracted to childish things. It gives them a sense of feeling cool, and even builds a small hierarchy when certain children have candies that other children do not have. Let them think the world of their Warheads and Airheads, and just make sure they brush their teeth every night!
One of my all time favorite movies is A Little Princess. It is based on the 1905 book by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The story line follows a young girl named Sara Crewe who is born and raised in India to her wealthy soldier father. He sends her to an upscale London boarding school to receive a formal education. The headmistress, Miss Minchin, is cold and cruel to say the least. Then, when she receives word that Sara’s father was killed in the war and would not be paying for Sara to stay at the school, she tells Sara her only choice is to live in the attic as a servant or else she will be kicked out on the street. Sara never loses hope or the ability to see the good in everything. Her father always told her elaborate stories about princesses in India and she used those stories to keep the other girls at the boarding school feeling positive. They would meet her in the attic nightly and secretly listen to her optimistic stories. Miss Minchin does everything in her power to keep the girls from using this power of imagination. She believes it to be a waste of time and that they should be doing more productive things with their time. She even takes Sara’s locket, the only part of her father she has to hold on to. (Spoiler alert) In the end, she finds that her father is much closer than she thought. He is alive and recovering from an explosion with the help of a friend from India. They are reunited and Sara takes one of her new orphaned friends with her and her father back to India after ensuring that Miss Minchin is fired.
Needless to say, the moral of the story is that imagination is a powerful tool that makes life better and can help you through hard times. Another main point is to never lose hope in yourself or others. This is a powerful message to send to children considering, the issues we have been discussing in class. Combining my love for this movie and my new knowledge from class, an idea from our Chudacoff reading came to mind. “Advertisers quickly learned that they could merge a “backstory” of fantasy with a product to create a meaningful relationship between product and child.” (course packet) I realize this is not necessarily a product advertisement but this movie is definitely pro-imagination and the writers use this dramatic story line to drive home the point that children need imagination in their life.
We discussed in class whether or not children should tap in to this source of creativity when they play or if play should be focused more on productive ideas like easy bake ovens or toy work benches. My answer is no. The ability to be optimistic and make light of a challenging situation begins with the ability to see the good in everything. I believe this starts with the ability to be creative and expand the definition of real life.
A very important line from the movie is when Sara says “All girls are princesses”. This brings to mind the Free To Be You and Me readings and discussions. I believe this movie is very relevant to this piece. The story, “Ladies First” seems to say that girls should not claim to be ladies or princesses based on the entitlement that comes with it. However, this movie shows that this gender idea can be used for good to make a young, troubled girl feel special and loved.
Controversial "Stop Sugarcoating It Georgia" ad campaign
Do anti-obesity advertisements effectively promote healthy lifestyles, or do they merely stigmatize ill-fated children who have grown up in unhealthy households? One recent news article, published by NPR correspondent Kathy Lohr, argues the latter.
Lohr’s argument centers around the “Stop Sugarcoating It, Georgia” ad campaign, which uses scare tactics similar to those found in anti-smoking and anti-methamphetamine advertisements, in an attempt to reverse the growing trend of childhood obesity in a state with “the second highest number of obese kids in the country.” Lohr claims that while the message of healthy living is an important one, the tactics being used may provide more harm than good, as they disparage the same children who are already made to feel inadequate through the perpetual teasing and bullying they endure both at school and on the playground.
In addition to being detrimental to a child’s self-esteem, these advertisements may actually promote the exact behavior that they are trying to prevent, as Georgia State University professor Rodney Lyn states, “we know that stigmatization leads to lower self-esteem, potential depression. We know that kids will engage in physical activity less because they feel like they’re going to be embarrassed. So there are all these other negative effects.” So the question becomes, why does society continue to employ stigma as a motivator for change, when positive reinforcement has proven itself a much more effective tool?
In relation to class discussion, this is very much the same question brought up by the Free to Be story, “Ladies First,” where a young girl is eaten by a group of tigers due to her inability to recognize the negative consequences of her condescending and stuck-up attitude. “Ladies First,” similarly to Georgia’s anti-obesity campaign, focuses on a child’s negative quality, rather than a positive one, which may lead to many children thinking that they are inherently flawed in some way, when in reality, the problem may be caused more directly by the child receiving poor parenting than by the child itself. This potentially damaging effect of children viewing themselves as flawed may be the reason that “this ‘bad’ female subject [was] somewhat unusual for the Free to Be series, which [tended] to celebrate conventional images of bold and adventurous girls rather than to condemn conventional ones” (235). But if that is the case, it would seem to be in everyone’s best interest to focus solely on children’s positive attributes, rather than negative ones. That way, an obese or overly bratty child will be more inclined to change, as they won’t see themselves as holistically flawed individuals, but rather they will be able to isolate the problem, making change seem far more attainable.
In the Gary Cross reading he begins saying that, “By the 1980’s play was divorced from the constraints of parents and the real worlds …The dolls and playsets that encouraged girls to act out their mothers’ roles were replaced by Barbie’s fantasies of personal consumptions.” (290) However, my favorite toy from childhood combined elements of fantasy and “playing mom,” I’m referring to the pop culture phenomenon of the 1990’s, the “Giga Pet.”
Giga Pets were launched by Tiger Electronics in 1997, and were the “it” gift that holiday season. Luckily, they were rather affordable at just $9.99 and kids from all socioeconomic backgrounds could afford them. You would care for virtual pet on a knuckle-sized screen that was connected to a keychain. You were responsible for feeding your pet, making sure it slept, and playing with it. If you could not fulfill these responsibilities then your pet died.
I often wondered if my mom was as obsessed with me as I was with my Giga Pet dog. I remembered I was almost eight years old when I received my first one, and the following day I went to the zoo. I didn’t notice a single animal though, neither did my two cousins, sister, or the two neighbors we went with as we all were looking down at our virtual pet key chains the entire time. Finally at lunchtime my dad and my uncle confiscated our “toys” as they were annoyed they had paid for us to come to the zoo to play with fake pets when live animals surrounded us. I felt like someone had kidnapped my child and I should call the police. What if my dog died while in my dad’s pocket for the next few hours?! When we got back to the car my dad handed back our pets, and they were all safe and sleeping. A week later I lost my Giga Pet and was on the next thing. So, Gary Cross while toys might change, one thing doesn’t, kids will always lose their toys.
Gary Cross’ article, “Spinning out of Control,” states that “the old view that children should learn from the past and prepare for the future is inevitably subverted in a consumer culture where memory and hope get lost in the blur of perpetual change.” I would agree for the most part, that most children’s television shows are pointless and mindless entertainment. However some shows were able to capture young audiences as well as teach them valuable lessons. G.I. Joe is a good example of a perfect balance between fantasy and (somewhat) reality. The episode that I watched was entitled “Red Rocket’s Glare,” which was about Cobra Command trying to blow up the world (surprise, surprise ). Cobra Command was able to buy out a lot of small locally owned businesses across the country and turn them into a series of fast food restaurants called, Red Rockets. The Joe’s first discovered that something was a midst when they took a short leave of absence to visit one of their teammate’s Aunt’s newly owned Red Rocket restaurant. There they discovered that a biker gang (with ray guns) was hired by Cobra Command to harass these restaurants so they could lose money and have to sell their business to evil conglomerate Extensive Enterprise, which (surprise, surprise ) is owned by Cobra. The Joe’s are able to fend off the bikers but in turn trigger Cobra’s attack on the world by launching all of the rockets on top of the restaurants which turned out to be actual rockets and not just props (surprise, surprise ). But in the end, the Joe’s prevailed again through teamwork, intelligence, and some really good resources.
