Raffi on advertising to children

[Gary Ruskin]

Commercial Alert			June 19, 2000

Following is an op-ed by Raffi in the June 9 edition of the Toronto
Globe & Mail.

YES, WE HAVE NO ADVERTISING

Efforts by big business to target youngsters as consumers must stop,
says children's entertainer Raffi

By Raffi Cavoukian

Throughout my 20-plus years of making music for children, the core value
at the heart of my work has been respect for the young child as a whole
person. I have not accepted any offers to do commercial endorsements
because I believe it's wrong to use one's popularity to sell products to
a vulnerable audience.

Last week, I made the difficult decision to cancel my concerts at the
Vancouver International Children's Festival -- where I've often
performed since 1979 -- to protest the overt commercialization of a
festival once staunchly opposed to that idea.

Festival organizers knew of my feeling that arts for the young and
advertising don't mix. In recent years, when corporate logos crept onto
the grounds, I continued to express my growing concern.

This year, on the first day of the week-long event, I was stunned to
discover that, for the very first time, there was a "presenting sponsor"
-- an automobile company that was allowed to turn a portion of the
festival site into an outdoor car lot with over a dozen vehicles and
several large banners. I felt sick at seeing this and knew that I could
not be a part of this blatant display of corporate sponsorship.

I realized how disappointed my fans would be to learn we would not be
singing together. However, there was an important principle to uphold on
behalf of all children, and I trusted that parents would understand. In
my public statements to explain my position I have said that corporate
support of public events is fine, when necessary, provided it is done
with sensitivity and acknowledged quietly. While bowing out of this
year's festival was very painful, my spirits have been lifted by the
strong positive support I have received.

Perhaps the "branding" of this beloved children's festival in Vancouver
-- unthinkable a few years ago -- is best understood as part of the
multinational, global gold rush that currently draws waves of resistance
worldwide. The fast-food hype, the celebrity-driven advertising, and the
reach of corporate branding even into our kids' schools have pushed
logos into every corner of our consciousness. It's getting on people's
nerves.

Is there a silver lining? This may be an issue that lights a fire with
big smoke signals: Pervasive, bottom-line marketing demeans public
spaces and diminishes community, and this is most visible in its impact
on children.

Advertising aimed at children is so prevalent in our lives that many
people think it's okay. But child-development experts for years have
said that ads on kids' TV shows, for example, constitute an unfair
assault on impressionable minds that aren't old enough to appraise the
sales pitch.

And yet, every day, with the help of psychologists, big businesses wage
media campaigns that target children from birth as consumers. We need to
understand that this serves no one. It's wrong, and it must stop.

Who will look after the children? Is it really so difficult for
economists and legislators to envision a business ethic that favours the
many? Do we lack the imagination to conceive of a society that respects
its young, one that would therefore embrace an honourable protocol for
commerce?

We live in a time that many of the world's brightest minds regard as
"condition critical" for the Earth and the life-support systems that
sustain us. Now is the hour to put children first, to safeguard their
lives (and ours) by creating a new code for commerce, and to
fundamentally redesign relations between society's public and private
sectors. It's a time for corporate humility and compassion.

Corporate shareholders and CEOs must realize that all of us hold shares
in a much greater venture -- our collective future on Earth -- and that
the economic values we choose to support will largely determine the
legacy we leave for generations to come.

Let socially responsible businesses with "multiple bottom lines" deepen
the dialogue. How do we reverse the corporate takeover of public spaces?
How do we protect children from commercial exploitation? What's fair
play between a company's right to do business and a young child's right
to breathe freely?

Do we have the courage to change the rules? Whether it's transforming
corporate charters into rights-with-responsibilities covenants, or
embracing an ecologically intelligent "Quality of Life Index" to replace
the GDP, we can engage our duty to our children and create something
new. We can take unprecedented steps toward a child-honouring society
that enriches everyone. 

A member of the Order of Canada, Raffi Cavoukian is an internationally
acclaimed singer, composer, performer and author. His autobiography, The
Life of a Children's Troubadour, is published by Homeland Press.

<----------article ends here----------->

If you want to thank Raffi for his efforts to protect children from
commercial advertising, you can send him email at
<mpotyra@troubadour-records.com>.

Commercial Alert opposes the excesses of commercialism, marketing and
advertising.  Commercial Alert's web address is
<http://www.essential.org/alert/>. 

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Gary Ruskin | Commercial Alert 
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