PBS Should Protect Children by Taking Teletubbies Off the Air

[Gary Ruskin]

Commercial Alert				March 22, 2000

	A coalition of child advocates today asked Public Broadcasting System
(PBS) President Pat Mitchell to stop broadcasting the Teletubbies, a
television program marketed to children as young as twelve months,
because young children should play instead of watching television, and
fast food companies use the Teletubbies to market junk food.

	The letter to PBS President Pat Mitchell follows.

Dear Ms. Mitchell:

	Last year, the Burger King Corp. executed a licensing agreement with
the itsy bitsy Entertainment Co. to promote Teletubbies, a Public
Broadcasting Service (PBS) television series for toddlers.  According to
news accounts, the McDonald's Corp. will soon conduct a similar
promotion.

	McDonalds and Burger King produce food laden with excess calories, fat
and sodium, such as hamburgers, french fries and soda pop. When PBS
allows Teletubbies -- one of its "Ready to Learn" programs for
preschoolers -- to partner with these companies, it is helping to market
junk food to very young children. 

	According to Burger King, this partnership was a magnificent success. 
"Teletubbies was a great promo partner," says Cindy Syracuse, Burger
King's manager for youth and family marketing.

	 That is good news for Burger King.  It is not good news for the
toddlers who are manipulated into eating unhealthy food.  Childhood
obesity has become a major problem in the United States.  The Journal of
the American Medical Association recently reported that the "United
States has experienced alarming increases in obesity among children and
adolescents."  A report from the American Academy of Pediatrics notes
that "[I]ncreased television use is documented to be a significant
factor leading to obesity."

	The AAP report also states that increased TV viewing may lead to
decreased achievement in school.  It observes that "[T]ime spent with
media often displaces involvement in creative, active, or social
pursuits."  By marketing Teletubbies as educational for children as
young as one, PBS is leading parents to believe, mistakenly, that
watching TV is good for babies.  In fact, the AAP recommends that
children under two should not watch TV at all.  According to the AAP,	

	"Pediatricians should urge parents to avoid television viewing for
children under the age of 2 years....research on early brain development
shows that babies and toddlers have a critical need for direct
interactions with parents and other significant care givers (eg, child
care providers) for healthy brain growth and the development of
appropriate social, emotional, and cognitive skills. Therefore, exposing
such young children to television programs should be discouraged."

	Many parents trust PBS to provide high-quality educational programing. 
But Teletubbies was created for our youngest children, for whom watching
TV provides no known benefits and may cause harm.  PBS is abusing
parents' trust by encouraging children under two to become viewers. 
This is a bonanza for TV advertisers.  "If you own this child at an
early age, you can own this child for years to come," explained Mike
Searles, then-president of Kids-R-Us, a major children's clothing store.
"Companies are saying, ‘Hey, I want to own the kid younger and
younger.'"  It is troubling in the extreme that PBS would assist
advertisers in this exploitation.

	Teletubbies appears to be a lucrative investment for PBS.  But the cost
-- to children and to PBS -- is too high.  By continuing to broadcast
Teletubbies in light of its partnership with the fast food industry and
the AAP's recommendation to keep young children away from TV, PBS is
compromising its educational mission, and violating the public trust. 
If PBS cares about the health and well-being of American children, it
should take Teletubbies off the air immediately.   We urge you to do so.

Sincerely, 

William R. Beardslee, MD, Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry,
Children's Hospital Gardner Monks Professor of Child Psychiatry, Harvard
Medical School
Thomas J. Cottle, PhD, Professor of Education, Boston University
Leon Eisenberg, MD, Presley Professor of Social Medicine Emeritus,
Harvard Medical School
Roy Fox, Associate Professor of English Education & Literature, U. of
Missouri-Columbia; author, Harvesting Minds
George Gerbner, President and Founder, Cultural Environment Movement;
Dean Emeritus, Annenberg School of Communication
Michael F. Jacobson, co-author, Marketing Madness
Allen Kanner, PhD, Associate Faculty, Wright Institute
Jean Kilbourne, author, Deadly Persuasion
Diane Levin, PhD, Professor of Education, Wheelock College; author,
Remote Control Childhood
Jane Levine, Co-founder, Kids Can Make A Difference
Susan Linn, EdD, Associate Director, Media Center of the Judge Baker
Children's Center
Robert McChesney, Research Associate Professor, U. of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign; author, Rich Media, Poor Democracy
Jim Metrock, President, Obligation, Inc.
Mark Crispin Miller, Professor of Media Ecology, New York University
Alvin Poussaint, MD, Director, Media Center of the Judge Baker
Children's Center 
Gary Ruskin, Director, Commercial Alert
Juliet Schor, Senior Lecturer on Women's Studies, Harvard University;
author, The Overspent American
Frank Vespe, Executive Director, TV-Free America

<----------letter ends here---------->
BACKGROUND:
For more information about the Teletubbies, see Commercial Alert's web
page on the Teletubbies at
<http://www.essential.org/alert/teletubbies/index.html>.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP:
Urge PBS President Pat Mitchell to take the Teletubbies off the air.
Mitchell's phone is (703) 739-5015, fax is (703) 739-7500 and email is
<pmitchell@pbs.org>.

Commercial Alert opposes corporate exploitation of children and the
excesses of commercialism, advertising and marketing.

Commercial Alert's materials are distributed electronically via the
commercial-alert mailing list <commercial-alert@lists.essential.org>. To
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<http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/commercial-alert> or send
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PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY
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Gary Ruskin | Commercial Alert 
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Phone: (202) 296-2787 | Fax (202) 833-2406
http://www.essential.org/alert/ | mailto:gary@essential.org
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