Atkins Friendly Monster
Well, not really Atkins friendly, exactly, but the Cookie Monster's looking to shed some pounds.
I've had a tough time with this one. I'd like to preserve my sentimental thoughts of the snacking blue fur-ball, but I've come to realize this as a kind of truth of American television. When Sesame Street began, there was little television that was aimed at and communicating with children on a large scale. Having a character like Cookie Monster was an easy way to relate with the children, to draw them in and keep them captivated with a tangible pleasant reward: the cookie.
Things have changed so much in even the last ten years. Advertising has gotten so sophisticated and calculated that it has become a simple art to develop a consumerist thought within any American. But, particularly, the case of children's programing is telling: a child is exposed to many many more messages of commerce, all of them have been crafted to an absolute point. A child can't escape these messages- Taco Bell and Pizza Hut now sponsor their lunches at school, even. Watch any Saturday morning or after-school cartoon show and count the advertisements for food products- they are innumberable, and they are all wild, adventurous rides beaconing the children to jump on board.
I think that Sesame Street has realized this: when they created the Cookie Monster, he was an endearing side-character on learning. He was the fun reward, the cut-loose, the pleasant gift of learning. He was, inside the Sesame Street world, that wild ride, that fun experience, but he was a reward for positive behaviour. Now, they've realized that overwhelmingly the messages about food a child recieves about food have nothing to do with reward or nutrition and everything to do with wild adventure. Sesame Street has seen Cookie Monster rendered irrelevent by the brute force of advertising.
This isn't the same thing as an anti-obesity drive on the part of Sesame Street, although that is much easier to digest. The fact is, we have allowed ourselves and our children to be indoctrinated so much by these advertisements that it has become impossible to give things like a "cookie" the meaning of a reward, and that rewarding itself has become meaningless. Indeed, to a child, snacks and candy are mainstream, facts of life, expected rewards for waking up, going to school, getting a Double Decker Taco and a can of Coke every day in the lunch line.
I've had a tough time with this one. I'd like to preserve my sentimental thoughts of the snacking blue fur-ball, but I've come to realize this as a kind of truth of American television. When Sesame Street began, there was little television that was aimed at and communicating with children on a large scale. Having a character like Cookie Monster was an easy way to relate with the children, to draw them in and keep them captivated with a tangible pleasant reward: the cookie.
Things have changed so much in even the last ten years. Advertising has gotten so sophisticated and calculated that it has become a simple art to develop a consumerist thought within any American. But, particularly, the case of children's programing is telling: a child is exposed to many many more messages of commerce, all of them have been crafted to an absolute point. A child can't escape these messages- Taco Bell and Pizza Hut now sponsor their lunches at school, even. Watch any Saturday morning or after-school cartoon show and count the advertisements for food products- they are innumberable, and they are all wild, adventurous rides beaconing the children to jump on board.
I think that Sesame Street has realized this: when they created the Cookie Monster, he was an endearing side-character on learning. He was the fun reward, the cut-loose, the pleasant gift of learning. He was, inside the Sesame Street world, that wild ride, that fun experience, but he was a reward for positive behaviour. Now, they've realized that overwhelmingly the messages about food a child recieves about food have nothing to do with reward or nutrition and everything to do with wild adventure. Sesame Street has seen Cookie Monster rendered irrelevent by the brute force of advertising.
This isn't the same thing as an anti-obesity drive on the part of Sesame Street, although that is much easier to digest. The fact is, we have allowed ourselves and our children to be indoctrinated so much by these advertisements that it has become impossible to give things like a "cookie" the meaning of a reward, and that rewarding itself has become meaningless. Indeed, to a child, snacks and candy are mainstream, facts of life, expected rewards for waking up, going to school, getting a Double Decker Taco and a can of Coke every day in the lunch line.
posted by General Stan at 12:44 PM
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