The Hub Raises Product Placement Concerns

That's kinda the point of Transformers. What good is a Autobot/Decepticon figure that doesn't have some fiction behind them? Say for instance a kid gets a Megatron figure. There is no TV show to backup his... backstory (I dunno, I'm making this up along as I'm going). The kid not only wants to learn more about this specific character, but wants to hear him speak and interact with other characters. So how will that happen? By the magic of television (and a couple of comics to throw into some official cannon) of course. So take THAT, Susan Linn!

Some people really need to get a life. I had a great childhood because of these "commercials".

what's the big deal? this has been going on since 1984! i dont know about you guys but I'd rather see a little kid watching cartoons and buying toys than playing call of duty or grand theft auto. and trust me I've seen my little 5th garde cousin play that.

I think somebody should tell those campaigners that we are about 70 years too late for anybody to ever have a commercial free childhood and that advertising really hasnt done all that much damage in most peoples lives. Everything I saw advertised and got excited over and told my mum I wanted I didn't necessarily get, and if I did get it I genuinely enjoyed it because, well, I am fairly certain that kids aren't as dumb as people think.

So? Every cartoon (at least almost every one) has a toy-line ,or in some cases card game, that they are trying to get kids to buy. Kids want to play with their cartoon heroes.

The only problem here is that they don't like Hasbro having a hand in the TV station, but Hasbro has become more than a toymaker. They have books, comic books, multi-million dollar movies and video games they are collaborating on. They are an entertainment company, be it entertaining kids with toys, or with cartoons and movies about their toys.

DRAT!!! I knew this was gonna happen... I hope they pull through though.
By the way "commercial-free-childhood-campaign" WHAT THE HECK!?!?!?! Do people not have better things to do other other than criticizing commercials?

Like playing with transformers, now that is something better to do!

Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood - Translation: "Mummy and Daddy didn't buy me what I wanted when I was growing up, so I'm going to take it out on all of you!".

"The notion of a toy company owning a television channel for the sole purpose of promoting their toys is egregious practice,"...NOT S**T SHERLOCK!!!

What kid doesn't like toys and cartoons? I mean cartoons have had a long history of selling toys, from Hasbro's past shows, Transformers, He-Man, GI-Joe, etc to the more recent Pokemon and Bakugan and other similar titles.

Kids like cartoons because they are fun.

Kids like toys because they are fun.

Kids like playing with toys based on their favorite cartoon characters because then you get twice the fun!

Susan Linn and other people like here need to wake up and realize that kids just wanna have fun. Even if Hasbro wasn't making toys and the Hub was never conceived, kids would still want to have fun, and most of the time that fun doesn't include doing arithmetic problems.

Oh my...ok, people like this seriously need to grow up!

I'm sick of these type of folk who think they are righteous and above the rest.

Cartoons, toys, ads, it's all a win-win! The design, manufacturing, distribution, and of course the advertising keeps jobs on good peoples plates (and food on their families') And it keeps kids (and us big kids) uber happy!

Happy, well fed kids with well paid parents-these tools want to take a pop at that yet claim to be the righteous heroes of kid's welfare??

WTF??

We all know Susan Linn is right about that. The HUB's purpose is to move the toy product lines. But I'm not complaining, I love watching cartoons all the same.

My problem with people like this Susan Linn is that they want to raise my kid by their idea of a perfect childhood.

There are lots of options for raising a kid without commercials.

There are commercial free channels like Nick Jr. as well as on-demand. And you can always have stuff on DVD, use netflix or line up programming from the internet. Or just DVR stuff and blow through the commercials. Like I said, many, many options are out there.

My son is 3 and only recently (maybe 4 months ago) saw his first commercial! He cried because his show went away and "some junk" came on!

He is a bit bigger now and gets that they can show him stuff he may or may not want.

Terrific. Another liberal whacko out to protect our kids from what is now the "big bad toy commercial". Commercial free? I hadn't realized that kids were having seizures and foaming at the mouth with their eyes rolled up in their heads from OD-ing on commercials or toy-related TV shows.

Ya know, I learned a very simple practice from my father back in the day, which was to turn down the volume knob (the mute button on the remo in later days) during the commercials. That took care of the problem without all those fancy organizations. In the early days, I remember pointing at the TV screen and declaring "I want that!" and my Mom saying "No". That was the end of it because back then, parents represented authority. Of course today's popular weak-kneed parenting practices don't help where children are allowed to scream their heads off in public if they want something they saw on TV and parents are too frightened of Big Brother to deliver a well deserved smack to restore order.

In terms of a channel consisting of programming related to Hasbro's licenses, I say if folks don't like it, it is their prerogative to change the channel and not the choice of some bleeding heart, self-righteous special interest group.

lil 2 lil 2 late to be all concern about. if a parent feel the child is watching these "toy commercial-like shows" to much then change the channel. Problem Solved

Cobalt Prime wrote:Terrific. Another liberal whacko out to protect our kids from what is now the "big bad toy commercial". Commercial free? I hadn't realized that kids were having seizures and foaming at the mouth with their eyes rolled up in their heads from OD-ing on commercials or toy-related TV shows.

Ya know, I learned a very simple practice from my father back in the day, which was to turn down the volume knob (the mute button on the remo in later days) during the commercials. That took care of the problem without all those fancy organizations. In the early days, I remember pointing at the TV screen and declaring "I want that!" and my Mom saying "No". That was the end of it because back then, parents represented authority. Of course today's popular weak-kneed parenting practices don't help where children are allowed to scream their heads off in public if they want something they saw on TV and parents are too frightened of Big Brother to deliver a well deserved smack to restore order.

In terms of a channel consisting of programming related to Hasbro's licenses, I say if folks don't like it, it is their prerogative to change the channel and not the choice of some bleeding heart, self-righteous special interest group.

BRAVO sir, BRAVO. Nicely said.

I assume she wants to argue for children to grow up having more fun for its own sake than steeped with consumerism. (I don't actually know this, she could just be a crazy) But it's not the strongest position to stand for.

For one thing; It's not like commercials for stuff like toys and games are utterly scarring children or messing with their sense of restraint vs desire. Kids are going to want stuff, they always have. Children's shows from Howdy Doody on have try to make their stuff compelling so kids will want their stuff. Moreover, there's still the matter of them having, far as I know, a lot more dignity about themselves than commercials and product placement aimed at adults.

For another; fun for its own sake does not directly mean "wholesome". I'm not going to go further into that, I'll just stop with saying children can be just as disturbed as adults.

If you don't want your kids to spend all their time being marketed to, take them outside, go places and do stuff. It's not that hard.

And how many times have we reminded the fans that Hasbro is a company? Do we need to remind everyone else now too? Or do we live in a perfect world where you don't have to make money to make a living?


On a different tact, did she ever stop to think that kids actually enjoy the toys &/or shows [and that that might not be a bad thing]?

Personally, I love bringing peoples' dreams to life. That's why I draw, or model/animate in 3D, or build costumes, or whatever. Hasbro does something similar with their work. Unfortunately, Hasbro can't do it as a non-profit company. They can't offer their stuff for free like I can (don't doubt it would certainly be nice to get paid for what I like to do, versus making money elsewhere and trying to fit the fun stuff on the side). So they sell stuff. And there is a demand for it.

I'm confused. Does she really think that we're so good at making commercials we can make people want anything? That commercials aren't a win-win situation anymore (consumer is made aware of something they may or may not want; corporate, now selling because people know it's there, can sell enough [if it's a worthy product] to keep going as a business).

Don't tell me anybody believes commercials are why people are spending money they don't have. *face palm*

Is the community here any example? Collecters like who're here couldn't collect much if they didn't know how to budget properly.

Another self-righteous evil liberal conservative nutball that wants to tell people how to live, how to raise their kids, what religion to believe in, how to have sex, and waste my time with this crap. F*** YOU SUSAN LINN!

Parenting... Let the TV do it.

Oh... right...

Skyfire77 wrote:Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood - Translation: "Mummy and Daddy didn't buy me what I wanted when I was growing up, so I'm going to take it out on all of you!".

Cyberstrike wrote:Another self-righteous evil liberal conservative nutball that wants to tell people how to live, how to raise their kids, what religion to believe in, how to have sex, and waste my time with this crap. F*** YOU

AutobotTrainer wrote:

Cobalt Prime wrote:Terrific. Another liberal whacko... Of course today's popular weak-kneed parenting practices don't help where children are allowed to scream their heads off in public if they want something they saw on TV and parents are too frightened of Big Brother to deliver a well deserved smack to restore order...

BRAVO sir, BRAVO. Nicely said.

That's why I stopped coming here.

Isnt that what most cartoons are about these days? And last time i checked all the TF shows on there are not going to have a current toyline well except for maybe G1, generations kinda is a G1 toyline. As for the others i really have no clue. The way that i see it is if a kid watches a show & likes it he or she is going to want merchandise for it so they can recreate the show and show that they like it. Just think about all the cartoons & shows you watched when you were a kid and how many of the toys or shirts or cups you got from them. This is called supporting something you like and thats how the entire world works. This is just another case of someone needing a story for a deadline and picking something obvious and blowing it out of proportion. Cartoons are originally made to entertain but the 2nd point of them is to make money, and thats done by merchandising. Thats how its always been and its never going to change.

Ripped from one of her sites

Susan Linn wrote:Children are now the focus of a marketing maelstrom, targets for everything from minivans to M&M counting books. All aspects of children's lives—their health, education, creativity, and values—are at risk of being compromised by their status in the marketplace.

What in the f*** is wrong with this woman?

She's been having little too much happy leaf.

Cobalt Prime wrote:Terrific. Another liberal whacko out to protect our kids from what is now the "big bad toy commercial".

In the early days, I remember pointing at the TV screen and declaring "I want that!" and my Mom saying "No".

In terms of a channel consisting of programming related to Hasbro's licenses, I say if folks don't like it, it is their prerogative to change the channel and not the choice of some bleeding heart, self-righteous special interest group.

Summed up my feelings on this pretty well. This is no different than the video game censorship debates.

At the end of the day, it's the parent's job to decide how their kid grows up. Not the babysitters, not the teachers, not TV, nor video games, and especially not politicians. If your kid is brainwashed by consumerism, or turns into a violent monster because of some video game you bought, it's your fault as the parent.

Susan Linn wrote:Children are now the focus of a marketing maelstrom, targets for everything from minivans to M&M counting books.

Really?

chrisc4 wrote:what's the big deal? this has been going on since 1984!

Actually earlier than that.. Gi Joe was released in 83 and pushed Toys, comics, etc..

Cyberstrike wrote:Another self-righteous evil liberal conservative nutball that wants to tell people how to live, how to raise their kids, what religion to believe in, how to have sex, and waste my time with this crap. F*** YOU SUSAN LINN!

Don't Put the conservatives in this.
We generally don't care about what businesses do as long as it's legal.
This is one of those anti business mindsets,
I happen to like McDonalds, and now they wanna take the Happy out of Meals in California (one of the most Liberal States in the US, No offense to the Normal Californians), because it makes kids fat.
Back to Whiny Parent Lady
If you want to Whine about companies selling toys, Look at disney They own a toy manufacturer now (They bought marvel, and marvel Owned a toy company), and several TV channels (ABC, ESPN, Disney channel, Disney XD, etc), Don't forget their ownership of Marvel, and Pixar. They also own companies that make videogames.
Toy story was about toys.
One big Commercial.
Attack Disney if you want to cry, They owned Power rangers for a while too.
Now they own the XMen, and Captain America.
That's nationalistic, and gives kids the Idea that Violence is the solution to their problems.
Seriously though, Do some Real Parenting.

Caelus wrote:Oh... right...

Skyfire77 wrote:Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood - Translation: "Mummy and Daddy didn't buy me what I wanted when I was growing up, so I'm going to take it out on all of you!".

Cyberstrike wrote:Another self-righteous evil liberal conservative nutball that wants to tell people how to live, how to raise their kids, what religion to believe in, how to have sex, and waste my time with this crap. F*** YOU

AutobotTrainer wrote:

Cobalt Prime wrote:Terrific. Another liberal whacko... Of course today's popular weak-kneed parenting practices don't help where children are allowed to scream their heads off in public if they want something they saw on TV and parents are too frightened of Big Brother to deliver a well deserved smack to restore order...

BRAVO sir, BRAVO. Nicely said.

That's why I stopped coming here.

I basically agree with all those points, especially the last one, lol.


Really, Caelus??
Are those comments really that bad? With all due respect (to a MOD, I mean!) ...

Aren't you being a litte hypersensitive?

atomic1fire wrote:

Cyberstrike wrote:Another self-righteous evil liberal conservative nutball that wants to tell people how to live, how to raise their kids, what religion to believe in, how to have sex, and waste my time with this crap. F*** YOU SUSAN LINN!

Don't Put the conservatives in this.
We generally don't care about what businesses do as long as it's legal.
This is one of those anti business mindsets,
I happen to like McDonalds, and now they wanna take the Happy out of Meals in California (one of the most Liberal States in the US, No offense to the Normal Californians), because it makes kids fat.

I frankly think this woman is a liberal that has turned into a conservative by going so extreme.

Any way I no love for extreme Liberals, and I have zero tolerance of standard conservatives anymore, they are all a bunch of greedy Bible thumbing, homophobic racist idiots that want to turn America into a one big slave labor camp for big business and destroy the world through pollution so they can worship the blood money that they get.

The modern American conservative ideology is one thing and one thing only: EVIL. Pure 100% evil.

Yea, right. Children are the only ones affected by commercials. I'm sure both Toyota and Ford's demographics include 10- to 13-year-olds and that the Miller company had pre-pubesent kids in mind.
I think that Hasbro starting their own channel is a smart financial move.
I applaude you, Hasbro!

...So what many of you are saying is that if a voice appears from within the general public, warning that your kids are being USED as advertisement sponges in an advert concentrated station, the appropriate response is to tell the kids that the advertisements are their friends and the warnings are evil? Isn't there a single gram of truth in this chicks' words and stance? Or is she the BoogeySnatcher, out to destroy your kids, and Hasbro/Disney is the Valiant last-hope defender keeping them safe from her. Weren't the other guys gonna send your kids to wars instead?

So if it was still legal for every toy sports car to have the advertisements of cigarettes on them as per the originals did, that's okay too, right? And if you had TFs with Marlboro stickers on 'em right now, and this chick complained right now, all your posts would say she's evil and wants only to cause trouble to your kids?

Because, some evil campaigners are telling your kids how to grow up,eat,drink,screw,sh*t,dress,walk,talk,think and become robot slaves but the commercials aren't?

Isn't it better for a monopoly to have competition rather than remain a monopoly,come what may anyway?

And yes, take your kids outside, its' not that hard. The world is out there for free.

People who preach intolerance shouldn't pretend to be politically correct in their other posts,man!

(but Shhhh, let's not say anything that upsets Hasbro, because they might get angry and cut us off from our ADDICTION, just to show us who's boss and who's house bitch).

For the record, I don't know who this chick is,and I don't care about her, and I don't live in the states-NOR have I expressed any notion about how to educate your kids: I've tried to remain OBJECTIVE and put out a few questions that I believe are relevent because I find the whole vibe in this thread a little worrying.

So here I am -another outside voice.Am I evil too?

Autobot Smoketreader wrote:A lot.

Maybe people are just pointing out that being a good parent involves taking responsibility for what your child turns out like instead of blaming others when they grow up to be little bastards. Maybe if she'd turned off her tv once in a while instead of letting it raise her kids for her whilst she was out campaigning against whatever percieved wrongs against society were popular that week her kids wouldn't be spoiled brats.

Autobot Smoketreader wrote:...So what many of you are saying is that if a voice appears from within the general public, warning that your kids are being USED as advertisement sponges in an advert concentrated station, the appropriate response is to tell the kids that the advertisements are their friends and the warnings are evil? Isn't there a single gram of truth in this chicks' words and stance? Or is she the BoogeySnatcher, out to destroy your kids, and Hasbro/Disney is the Valiant last-hope defender keeping them safe from her. Weren't the other guys gonna send your kids to wars instead?

[Post truncated for sake of brevity. No offense, Smoketreader]

So here I am -another outside voice.Am I evil too?

I don't think the issue people have is intolerance, I think it has more to do with avoiding responsibility. They are accusing this woman of yelling "Blame Canada".

Is certain advertising targeted towards kids? Working on a degree in commercial film, I'd say the answer is a solid "Yes". There's no denying that a lot of shows and advertisements aimed at kids are to move product. If you were to complain about this, you'd be complaining about Capitalism in general. Its not really a call on "Liberals" or "Conservatives" (I thought the original poster of that oxymoron was making a strawman joke).

The real issue here is that people seem to have a habit of blaming the media for how their kids turn out. If the parents took the time to see what kinds of things their kids watched (Which is no simple task in a family situation) they'd understand it better. Heck, I once made an argument against a bible-thumper regarding how a show(Bakugan, a show clearly made to sell product) which was being demonized could be used as a metaphor for the bible, down to the creation story as well as the fact that the kids really didn't give a hoot for any of the supposedly "demonic" things the article he was quoting mentioned and in fact was a strawman article. He actually took my argument into consideration.

My belief is that people need to get involved more in the media their kids watch. I once found a website called "The first-reform church of Spongebob" which, while parodical in nature, presented the shows as some kind of gospel and actually asked questions about the real life lessons the episodes could teach. Again, yes, a lot of these shows are intended to sell product, but if the media itself was analyzed more closely, parents could find a wealth of opportunities to teach kids life lessons in a show that is written well enough.

Case-in-point: TFA episode "This Is Why I Hate Machines". While Captain Fanzone constantly mentioned how much he hated machines (hence the episode title), he put aside his hatred of them in order to help Ratchet whenever he could. Thus, prejudice should be put aside when things need to get done and shouldn't affect your judgement. That's a nice lesson, isn't it? And all wrapped into a 22-minute toy commercial. It doesn't even try to promote the idea of eliminating prejudice, just noting that any prejudice you might have shouldn't affect your judgment, as Fanzone still hates machines by the end of the escapade. Pretty deep, if you ask me.

The Legend wrote:

Autobot Smoketreader wrote:A lot.

Maybe people are just pointing out that being a good parent involves taking responsibility for what your child turns out like instead of blaming others when they grow up to be little bastards. Maybe if she'd turned off her tv once in a while instead of letting it raise her kids for her whilst she was out campaigning against whatever percieved wrongs against society were popular that week her kids wouldn't be spoiled brats.

Like I say, I don't know anything about this chick. I don't live in the states, so I have to assume my whole view of this is cushioned-I can therefore only be objective: it doesn't effect me directly and whoever posts with anger against her has a reason to, but I stand by what I said:I know how easily I can be both wrong and right.

If I had two groups aiming at my kids to feed themselves, I'd prefer to have them fight one another.In the interim I'd teach my kids about both sides stance as wholesomely as I have the capability to do so. The fact that both sides are fighting will provide me with 'typical good' and 'typical bad' examples of their predisposition to hold up to the kids to consider.Anything less is deliberately inflicted slavery.

What I want for my kids, I want for all their world that they have to clean up after I'm gone,which means it's what I want for everyones' kids.

That's as far as I want to get involved in this.That's all I believe I have to offer. Do whatever you want with it.I prefer to be someone who cared enough to post, no matter how uneducated I am about the reality of what she is trying to do to your families via alterior motive.

Respectfully.
Smoke.

Autobot Smoketreader wrote: Like I say, I don't know anything about this chick. I don't live in the states, so I have to assume my whole view of this is cushioned-I can therefore only be objective: it doesn't effect me directly and whoever posts with anger against her has a reason to, but I stand by what I said:I know how easily I can be both wrong and right.

I don't have any vested interest in her either but if someone is posting 'angrily' I would take it as frustration. Frustration that ignorant, short sighted people like her are pressuring governments in to implimenting frivilous laws and legislation that makes a mockery of their legal system and society by restricting the freedom of others via censorship.

The Legend wrote:

Autobot Smoketreader wrote: Like I say, I don't know anything about this chick. I don't live in the states, so I have to assume my whole view of this is cushioned-I can therefore only be objective: it doesn't effect me directly and whoever posts with anger against her has a reason to, but I stand by what I said:I know how easily I can be both wrong and right.

I don't have any vested interest in her either but if someone is posting 'angrily' I would take it as frustration. Frustration that ignorant, short sighted people like her are pressuring governments in to implimenting frivilous laws and legislation that makes a mockery of their legal system and society by restricting the freedom of others via censorship.

Thank you for this. I understand a little better now.

The Legend wrote:

Autobot Smoketreader wrote: Like I say, I don't know anything about this chick. I don't live in the states, so I have to assume my whole view of this is cushioned-I can therefore only be objective: it doesn't effect me directly and whoever posts with anger against her has a reason to, but I stand by what I said:I know how easily I can be both wrong and right.

I don't have any vested interest in her either but if someone is posting 'angrily' I would take it as frustration. Frustration that ignorant, short sighted people like her are pressuring governments in to implimenting frivilous laws and legislation that makes a mockery of their legal system and society by restricting the freedom of others via censorship.

Word.

If you think tv and/or ads are warping your children, turn the damn thing off and tell them to go outside and play; if you want to convince other parents to do the same, fine. Kids could use a little more outside time anyway, maybe then they'd trim off some pounds (Full disclosure: I really could have used this advise growing up, and I'm paying for it now). What you do in your house is none of my business, I only ask the same courtesy from others.