Kevin Koh
CMNS 428
Media Analysis #1
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In the introduction of Cook’s article, he claims “Children’s popular amusements no longer unquestionably pass as innocent pastime.” (Cook, 2001). This statement was supported by the fact that in today’s world, children’s entertainment has been saturated by sexual and violent images. As a reaction to this, children’s safety boards as well as ratings for music, films and videos has been introduced in order to shelter young minds from being expose to content that are deemed unsuitable for them (Cook, 2001).
Cook uses the example of the Beanie Baby phenomena in the 90s as one of his case study. According to Cook, the company who produces the popular Beanie Baby tries to sell their products as collectibles by producing limited quantities of each kind of Beanie Baby (1991). Each of the plush dolls comes with a personalized tag, which contributes even more to its collectibility. And since most of the plush dolls are considered limited edition, price of some of the plush dolls skyrocketed as there were some collectors who would pay up to $1200 for one Beanie Baby. Beanie Baby originally considered as children’s toys quickly become collectors item for adults.
Cook’s article on Beanie Baby is the backbone and inspiration for my culture jamming assignment. I have decided to name the image “Ebaby”, obviously it is a wordplay which I combine the name of a famous auction site, Ebay with Beanie Baby. My Photoshop piece is set in an auction, where the object that is being auction is not an oil painting or antique, but a limited edition Beanie Baby. Adults who attend the auction are bidding for the Beanie Baby aggressively, while a little girl look at the bidders helplessly. Through this picture, I intend to show the greed of the adults who wish to turn their purchase of the Beanie Baby into profit. I wish to show the irony as well as contradiction between the bidders, the toy and the child. The irony lies in the fact that the toy was created for kids, yet the kid cannot afford it because adults are the one going crazy over it, due to its potential value it could reach. The contradiction lies in the fact that children see Beanie Baby as cute and cuddly dolls, nothing more than that. The do not have preconceived notion of the toy and what they see it in devoid of any commercial value. However, adults see the commercial values in these toys and wish to turn their investments into profit.
To summarize this image, I would like to quote Cook’s statement: “Adult, monetary greed has few antidotes when it positioned as being exercised at the price of children’s fun and well being” (1991).
The second image I did is a critique on an article titled “Sesame Street and Educational Television for Children” by Anderson et al. Previously I had written a critical analysis on the same article in which I argue that the author does not rule out the possibilities that other circumstances or factors have or may have affected a child’s grade; instead Anderson credits the early and high school educational success of children solely to Sesame Street. The article gives its readers the sense that Sesame Street has a causation effect on children’s academic achievements. The claim highlighted by Anderson and his cohorts are interesting, but it is hard to prove. The evidence that they use to support their claims are also weak. For starters, their subjects are over-represented, because most of their test subjects are white (Anderson, 1998). There is nowhere to find out if their test results are cross cultural, or accurate.
The second image features a prominent Sesame Street character name Count von Count, presumably as a professor. Next to Count von Count is a student, donning the graduation gown. My idea is to convey what Anderson and his cohorts tries to convince the readers with his Sesame Street article, that kids who watches Sesame Street tends to perform better academically than the kids who does not watch the same television program as often. I try to show that this particular student, under the mentorship and guidance of Count von Count, he has successfully graduated from Sesame Street University’s School of Biznezz (deliberately spelled ‘Biznezz’ to gain more street credibility).
I was not aware about the other possible meaning of this image when I was creating it. However when I look at it again, I was able to see another layer of meaning that the Sesame Street image can bring. The image can probably tell the audience that Sesame Street program can be used to replace teachers, and possibly replace the conventional academic institution like school or university.
The last image for this culture-jamming project was yet again inspired by Cook’s article Exchange value as pedagogy in children’s leisure: moral panics in children’s culture at century’s end. It was personally felt that we should look deeper into the repercussion of the commodification of children’s leisure, especially the effect on children. My target audience for this image is parents of children that actively participate Pokemon cards trading. I would like to highlight the fact that this form of leisure does nothing but train their children to be consumerist. Through trading cards with other children, they learn the dynamics of card trading. The point of this card trading game is to go after the rare and monetarily valuable ones (Cook, 2001). In hopes to get the most sought after cards, some children resort to cheating, while some spent all of their savings on buying and collecting such cards (Cook, 2001). These games are design in such a way, so that children will be attracted to it, and the company who produces these games would reap profit.
Apart from the trading cards, the company who produces Pokemon also lends the popularity of the monster characters to produce synergy with other products. It has also lend its name to other products such as plush dolls, as well as licensed its image to backpacks, pencils, wrist watches and so on. It was personally felt that corporation manufactured such image to exploit children’s vulnerability and innocents. Branding their products as children’s play, while they are nothing more than a cash cow for the company.
I try to convey the massive popularity of Pokemon through my culture jam image, in which Pokemon walks on the red carpet, flanked by its fans. This scenario is common at a movie premier or a fashion show, where fans gather to catch a glimpse of their favourite star. To a child, Pokemon is like a superstar, and they would buy any merchandize that has Pokemon on it. People behind that brand knew this, which is why we see them license their image to so many other merchandizes.
As a conclusion, we can use culture jamming to dismantle the consumer culture we live in. The focus of my culture jamming assignment is towards consumer culture of children. Children deserve to preserve their innocence, and their leisure and play should not be dominated by profit agendas of corporations.
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Reference:
Anderson, D, Huston, A, Wright, J, & Collins, P. (1998). Sesame Street and educational
television for children.
Cook, D. (2001). Exchange value as pedagogy in children’s leisure: moral panics in children’s culture at century’s end. Leisure Sciences: An Interdisciplinary Journal. 23(2), 81-98.
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