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santa protected by fighter jet? video for kids is drawing fire. [Virginian - Pilot](Virginian - Pilot Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) By Rene Lynch Los Angeles Times NORAD, the joint U.S.-Canada military force that protects our skies as well as runs the beloved Santa Tracker each holiday season, is under fire. The reason? A video that shows Santa and his reindeer accompanied by a military fighter jet escort. The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood has criticized the video, and, in turn, the campaign has been criticized for its criticism. "We've gotten some angry emails ... questioning my manhood," Josh Golin, the campaign's associate director, said last week. So Golin, and the campaign's co-founder, Berkeley child and family psychologist Allan Kenner, would like the opportunity to give a full airing to their side of the controversy: They say they are neither anti-military nor anti-American - but they are against any kind of advertising aimed at young, vulnerable minds. "What's getting lost in the controversy is the child-development piece," Golin said. It's easy for adults to look at the video above and say, "What's the big deal?" "But we are talking about 4-year-olds and 6-year-olds," Golin said. "For young children, the idea of Santa, and that there are 'bad guys' who might want to 'get' Santa, so he needs the jets, that can be very disturbing." He said there are plenty of studies that tie child-aimed advertising and media influences to a variety of ills, such as childhood obesity, violence and bullying. Kenner said in a separate interview Wednesday that advertisers aimed to manipulate and poison defenseless young minds to create "cradle-to-grave brand loyalty." He called it "very cynical manipulation." And he believes the video is a sign that the military is using some of these very same methods to indoctrinate children into supporting, endorsing and perhaps even one day joining the military. "It is essentially a marketing device for the military in search of future recruitment," he said. It's fine for the military to advertise to young adults, who, as mature young men and women, can make up their minds for themselves how they feel about the military, Kenner added. But overtly linking the military to Santa crosses a line, he said: "They're taking all the joy and gifts and fun of Santa Claus ... and attaching it to the military." Kenner said that if Santa gave him his wish this Christmas, it would be this: a ban on all advertising aimed at children. "Advertisers and marketers are extraordinarily sophisticated, and children don't have the cognitive capacity to resist. They're vulnerable." If anyone doubts the ability of advertisers to manipulate young minds, Golin said, they should remember this: Companies wouldn't spend billions of dollars each year finding clever ways to promote their wares if advertising didn't work. Toward the end of the video, Santa's sleigh is accompanied by two military jets. The Times reached out to NORAD for comment but hasn't been successful. Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, however, told the Boston Globe that the video simply gives children a glimpse of "our true mission." (c) 2013 ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved. |