|
July 23, 2008
Contact: Josh Golin
(857-241-2028;
josh<at>commercialfreechildhood.org)
For Immediate Release
CCFC Urges Adoption of
Republican Platform Plank on Marketing to Children
Today, the Campaign for a
Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) sent a letter to the Republican
Platform Committee urging them to adopt “a plank committing to
protect our nation’s children from the excesses of our
marketing-driven media culture.” The letter is part of CCFC’s
efforts to ignite a national conversation about the
commercialization of childhood. In June, CCFC sent a letter to
the Democratic Platform Committee urging the adoption of a
similar plank and CCFC’s representatives met with Democratic
National Platform Director Michael Yaki to discuss the plank
today.
“Our marketing-driven media
culture contributes to many of the most pressing problems facing
children today,” said CCFC’s Director Dr. Susan Linn, author of
Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood. “We urge both
Platform Committees to demonstrate their commitment to children
by adopting planks that clearly state that they will work for
the rights of children to grow up – and the freedom of parents
to raise them – without being undermined by negative media
messages and harmful marketing.”
The letter to the Republican
Platform Committee is below:
July 23, 2008
Representative Kevin
McCarthy, Chairman
Senator Richard Burr,
Co-Chairman, Executive Director
The Republican Platform
Committee
310 First Street
Washington, DC 20003
Dear Representative McCarthy
and Senator Burr:
We are writing on behalf of
the Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) to ask that
the Platform Committee include in the 2008 Republican Platform a
plank committing the Party to help America’s families by
protecting our children from the excesses of our
marketing-driven media culture. The health, well-being, and
character of America’s children depend on our ability as a
nation to safeguard them from what has become an onslaught of
sexualized and violent media and marketing. The media and
marketing industries are not just selling programs and products,
they are also selling values—values that undermine the lessons
that responsible parents strive to teach children.
We submit the following
language for consideration by the Platform Committee:
“No strategy to ensure the
well-being of America’s children and strengthen America’s
families can be complete without a plan to protect our children
from the excesses of our marketing-driven media industries.
Parents today are rightly concerned that, driven by an almost
single-minded focus on the bottom line, the nation’s media and
marketing institutions are teaching young people lessons and
values that undermine good parenting and hurt children. For all
the benefits that the media have brought us, they have also
contributed to a profound coarsening of our culture with a
steady stream of messages that sexualize children, promote
unhealthy eating, and glorify violence and materialism. The
escalation in marketing targeted directly at children, including
babies, has been linked to some of the most serious public
health problems facing our nation: the decline in children’s
creative play, childhood obesity, eating disorders, precocious
sexuality, youth violence, and family stress.
“We want to help parents
raise healthy children of good character. In ways consistent
with the First Amendment, we will work to foster a healthier
media environment for our children. We will work to protect our
children from the excesses of marketing. We will protect
parents’ rights to raise their children without being
overwhelmed by negative media messages and harmful marketing
strategies.”
The CCFC is a non-profit
national coalition of health care professionals, educators,
advocacy groups, and concerned parents working to counter the
harmful effects of marketing to children through action,
advocacy, education, research, and collaboration. We thank you
for your consideration of this request. We hope that, whatever
language it may ultimately adopt, the 2008 Platform will commit
the Republican Party to working to protect our nation’s children
from damaging media and marketing influences.
Sincerely,
Susan Linn, EdD Enola
Aird, JD
CCFC
Director CCFC Steering
Committee
|
