This is the actress who plays the 14-year-old girl that gets raped and murdered in The Lovely Bones. The movie comes out January 15, 2010. Channel One News is actively advertising this movie to fifth and sixth-grade children.
This PG-13 movie by DreamWorks does not show the actual rape and murder on screen. For that we are suppose to feel good? In reading some reviews before the film’s release there appear to be several disturbing images. A man is beaten to death with a baseball bat. There is some question whether that is actually shown or just the result of such action. A pile of children’s bodies is seen. Tough stuff to be advertising to Alloy/Channel One’s predominately preteen audience.
The reason this PG-13 movie and others even worse are being pitched by your child’s school is because your school has no control over what Channel One News decides to advertised to children. Channel One News is a marketing company. If DreamWorks is going to pay them to advertise a movie, Channel One News will take the money and run the ads. There are apparently no “gatekeepers” at Channel One who will review advertising for appropriateness.
Channel One is still maintaining their blackout of commercials that are running on their in-school TV show. Channel One has two commercial breaks where most of their advertising appears. Those breaks are now deleted by the company so parents cannot see what is being pitched to kids. Sometimes the company has advertising spilling over in the “news” portion of the show so we get a glimpse of what is being advertising.
On January 5, 2010 middle school students and some fifth grade students see a “Shout Out” about to be given. This is a short advertising feature that has an actor or recording artist give a “shout out” to “Channel One students.” The “shouter” usually mentions the name of a new movie, tv show, or CD coming out soon. Channel One does not count this as advertising time. They consider this “educational.”
Wonder who will give this “Shout Out”?
Oh, it’s Peter Jackson, the director of The Lovely Bones. He tells kids he made Lord of the Rings and King Kong. He says The Lovely Bones will be coming out on January 15. This is “hard news” by Channel One’s standards. One can only wonder how much money Channel One received for this piece of “journalism”?
If you are a parent of a child that attends a school that still has Channel One News playing during the school day, what you are seeing before you is an older man robbing your child and every other child in the school. Peter Jackson, here representing the financial interests of the huge movie studio DreamWorks, has no business taking up your child’s school time urging him or her to see his movie. Jackson is from New Zealand and down there it might be traditional for schoolchildren to see commercials for movies and other things during class time. That however is not the tradition in the U.S. The overwhelming majority of U.S. secondary schools eligible for Channel One’s service have never allowed the marketing gimmick called Channel One News in their classrooms.
Isn’t it time that you and other like-minded parents stand up and demand commercial-free classrooms. You cannot wait for a teacher or principal to oppose Channel One News. It has to be parents. Let 2010 be the year you get rid of this nonsense.
