 | Ypulse Daily Update 06.23.09
Directory and more at Ypulse.com | |  | Quick Links Ypulse Essentials: 'MacKenzie Falls', Gaming For Children's Health, United We Serve Posted by meredith  The Beatles: Rock Band (how the game's cinematic flourishes helps old and young fans come together over The Beatles) (Los Angeles Times)
- MacKenzie Falls (Disney Channel launches a new tween-aimed webisode series based on "Sonny With A Chance." Plus a profile on Disney star Selena Gomez) (Cynopsis Kids) (USA Today)
- Video games and children's health (a report released today by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop explores how research-based digital games can play an educational and beneficial role in health care. And, the role of toys and games in the dentist's office) (The Washington Post, reg. required)
- 'Justice for Rihanna' (the message Chris Brown's harsh plea deal sends to domestic abusers) (The Daily Beast)
- United We Serve (MTV, The Huffington Post and others launch a volunteer search engine in response to President Obama's call to service. Also MTV launches a search for a "Class of 09" valedictorian) (MTV News)
- Unhealthy study habits (in a study of 500 British kids include snacking on junk food, skipping meals and drinking energy drinks) (CalorieLab)
- Sherman Alexie vs. Chicago parents (a handful of parents took issue with Alexie's "Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" for the sexual content. Fortunately, the school board ruled in the book's favor) (Seattle PI)
- Random House Children's Screen Entertainment (Random House Children's Books and Komixx Entertainment are partnering to create a production company for animated and live-action kid/family centric content for movies and TV) (Cynopsis Kids)
- Gen Y and Twitter (still not a love story according to recent survey from Pace University and the Participatory Media Network. A Millennial theorizes why that is. Also, a look back at what went wrong with MySpace. Plus how tech divides generations in the workplace) (CNET) (Daily Beast) (NPR)
- 'Teen Dear Abby' (CNN profiles professional "advice slinger" to teens and Ypulse fave Josh Shipp for their "Young People Who Rock" series)
Posted in: Ypulse Essentials Can We Live With Imperfect Role Models? Posted by anastasia  The big news out of Washington yesterday was Obama signing the new tobacco legislation that primarily limits marketing, especially as it relates to youth. What's attracting more discussion, at least online, is whether Obama himself has finally kicked the habit. He hasn't come out and said that he has definitively "quit," and in fact his spokesperson says it's "something that he continues to struggle with," raising questions over whether he is being hypocritical and if it should matter at all.
As a former teenage and young adult "social smoker," (luckily I don't have an addictive personality and never got hooked), I found the nuance of someone who has personally struggled with this habit talking about that struggle in the context of attempting to prevent youth smoking to be refreshing. Obama candidly stated, "I know -- I was one of these teenagers, and so I know how difficult it can be to break this habit when it's been with you for a long time." It made me think about the power of imperfect or "human" role models.
The other night I watched the movie "Role Models" on demand -- it was a raunchy yet sort of heartwarming bromance with a message about redemption. The idea of two very self-involved, imperfect guys who hawk energy drinks to kids at school finding real meaning in their lives through a court-mandated Big Brother-like program was kind of heartwarming. We so often expect role models for teens to be squeaky clean and perfect -- I am guilty of this, too (see my post about Jamie Lynn Spears though my point was more about when celebrities are linked to brands).
Obama's statement made me think about whether there is value in having spokespeople like Bristol Palin speaking out against teen pregnancy or hypothetically, Chris Brown speaking out against teen dating violence. Of course the message and level of sincerity is key, but it could be potentially powerful. The challenge is that we live in a culture that tends to be so black and white/right or wrong. It's hard for us not to judge people as saints or sinners. Yet we seem to still love our anti-heroes (at least on premium cable!) and a good comeback story....Thoughts?
For more coverage of youth marketing, go to the Ypulse Youth Marketing Channel sponsored by Youth Marketing Connection.
Posted in: Ypulse Essentials | Youth Marketing What Privileged TV Teens Can't Buy... Real Teens' Respect Posted by meredith  Last fall Anastasia wondered whether a troubling economic situation would lead teens to turn away from privileged teen characters on TV and seek out more relatable middle and working class icons instead. Meanwhile, Bravo, the purveyors of "The Real Housewives" franchise -- featuring many spoiled teenage sons and daughters-- and now this summer's "Gossip Girl"-inspired reality show "NYC Prep" -- appears to be banking on just the opposite.
But after reading Alyx's verdict for "NYC Prep" -- "terrible role models for teens, but amazing entertainment" - and hearing about the uproar over the series at the high schools these students attend, I started thinking about the type of viewing pleasure that regular teens get from watching these shows about their filthy rich peers. Think less escapist and more schadenfreude.
Sure, teens might envy the accessories and the advantages money can buy characters on "Gossip Girl" and "The Hills," but when it comes to those not-for-sale items like true friendship and success based on hard work vs. parental connections -- I think teens on the other side of the screen have the edge. And I believe they're savvy enough to know it. That's part of the reason I feel like TV writers ditched the 80s' variety of disdaining outsider (think: John Hughes) for for the social climbing newcomer of today (think: Dan and Jenni Humphrey). Because what does "getting in with the in crowd" ever get the peripheral characters? A whole lot of grief and an inferiority complex. My sense is teens would rather not directly relate to these characters and, if anything, might pity their naivete. In this way I see these shows playing off that class warfare dynamic, except this time around the viewer is the knowing outsider.
While catfighting and pot stirring aren't exactly groundbreaking territory for primetime soaps or reality television -- and as we've covered here before, there's definitely been movement in the opposite direction with non-Hills programs on MTV and more realistic programming on ABC Family -- I think the extreme superficiality we've seen as of late isn't so much inspiring teens to fantasize that their lives were more like that, but rather take comfort in the fact that they aren't.
That said, I'm still not a fan of adapting the likes of "Gossip Girl" into a reality television show like Bravo's. For all of the clique-related issues I listed in my previous post, but also because, well, these are real people.. with real classmates. Who may one day want to go off to college or live in other cities and would probably prefer not to set the record straight. The stars of these shows voluntarily subjected themselves to the scrutiny of the cameras and audiences at home, but their peers, some of whom probably don't share the same extravagant lifestyles and most of whom are average teens, didn't. Regardless its now their stigma to bear, their class-based judgment to disprove -- a distinct "privilege," that I can vouch, most non-reality star residents of "The Hills" and "Laguna Beach" still aren't too thrilled about.
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Guillotine Those Rich Teens [Salon, day pass required]
Posted in: Ypulse Essentials | Youth Marketing | TV
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