Sesame Street

Sesame Street is television program for children billed as an “edutainment production,” meaning that it educates while it entertains. Both parents and their kids have enjoyed it for decades. The original mission of the producers was “to use the medium of television to reach and teach preschoolers, and give them skills that would provide a successful transition from home to school.” Today’s mission has changed slightly. It goes to a higher level past helping with transitions from home to school. Now the mission is to “create innovative, engaging content that maximizes the educational power of media to help children reach their highest potential."

"Potential." That is a humanist buzzword.

The Sesame Street show began in the fall of 1969 in New York City, and since that time it has broadened to reach audiences all over the world. In fact, it is now produced in at least ten different languages and is being broadcast in various countries, including Bangladesh, Kosovo and South Africa, each according to their own cultural dynamics. Kermit for example, is not on the Sesame Street program in France, (probably because in France frog's legs are on diner's menus... and such a thing could start a frog leg revolution,) and neither is Big Bird. Big Bird is not in India’s version of the program either. In India he is replaced by a seven-foot lion named Boombah who speaks in Hindi, (but is planned to master several languages as time goes by.)

In each country when Sesame Street is licensed it is shaped to fit the culture and the program addresses issues at hand. In Macedonia, Sesame Street is called Nashe Maalo and it is credited for easing many tensions particularly in Kosovo and Bosnia. In Africa it’s Takalani Sesame, which has incorporated the issues of HIV including AIDS education and discrimination into it’s programming, and has helped the country’s population, particulaly children, learn about blood safety and coping with the AIDS illness. Research has shown that even Palestinian, Jordanian and Israeli children have been “positively” influenced by versions of the programs that air in their countries because they give positive moral explanations “conflict scenarios.”

Sesame Street is a proving to be a powerful way of changing how people think. It's not just about transitions from home to school, not just about “ABCs and 123s” any more. Their webpage points this out too. “With today’s global landscape dominated by such pressing issues as poverty, human rights, AIDS and ethnic genocide..."they teach a whole lot than letters and numbers. They teach morals, ethics, and economics too. Let's face it, they are social engineering.

It has long been said, “the hand that rocks the little cradle, is the hand that rules the world,” and the power grab for the minds of the children of the world is in full force, even on AMerica's beloved Sesame Street. Businesses and corporations are actively pursuing advertising their logos, names and slogans on the program, hoping to ensure that theirs, above every other, is engraved deeply on every child’s brain for years to come. "But," you may argue, "there is no advertising on PBS, PBS has always considered themselves to be “commercial free television.”

It may have at one time been commercial free, but what we have now is actually a form of "corporatism," as Benito Mussolini called it. It's "the merger of state and corporate power.”

For a very long time sesame Street producers stood firm in this pledge. We used to hear , kinda as a joke, how the program was brought to us “by the letter Z," or "by the letter w." All of PBS in fact used to be used to be viewer-supported television, which means householder, people with tv sets in their living rooms gave money to make the progrms available. But if you watch PBS today, you’ll catch commercials. This is because it does not belong to "we the people" anymore. PBS now airs programs for much wealthier supporters, supporters who want airtime for their names.

Taking money from these sponsors is big money for PBS. However, and quite remarkably, PBS still insists that their programming is “commercial” free. Apparently, broadcasters don’t think of the sponsors as “ads.” Brooke Shelby Biggs, in an article for Mother Jones March 30, 2001, titled, Sesame Street Meets Madison Avenue notes, “PBS does not have advertising. They have underwriting.”

Underwriting?

The PBS website itself reads, QUOTE: "PBS KIDS programs are commercial-free and do not seek to sell anything to young viewers except the fun and excitement of learning." ENDQUOTE

Underwriting. Press the information tab to learn about sponsoring and you will read, 'Teletubbies,' the groundbreaking children's series based on extensive research with children, is available for sponsorship by your company. Teletubbies has earned the unanimous support of parents, children, and industry leaders, an audience that is right within your grasp!"

Yes indeed, they do have an audience within your grasp, and for the right amount of money, they can be yours. You too can have children who will grow up familiar with and probably even loving your products almost as much as the adorable puppets they see and love everyday on their TV. Thanks to PBS offers like this to "sponsors" who want to "underwrite" the program, Sesame Street today is sponsored by Volvo, Juicy Juice, an antibiotic called Zithromax, (a special sponsor of the letter “Z”.)

This is, a “Cheech and Chong” moment. Do you remember Cheech and Chong?

Cheech and Chong the druggie comedy team will long be remembered for a skit where they said, “If it looks like _________, smells like _______, tastes like ________,….. It must be _________!”

Fill in the blank with “commercial.”

PBS airs commercials for products and corporations all the time. However, PBS has effectively plutoed, re-imagined and redefined the word “commercial” for the rest of the world, and worse yet, we don’t mind. They ignore the simply truth, (on purpose) and teach (or rather train) the rest of us, their viewing public to do the same. Apparently there are people in America who are so desensitized by media productions to the point that they do not know a commercial when they see one. It is probably because they are too young to know what commercial-free TV really looks like.

The PBS Sesame Street audience is young, but you can bet that the big, grown-up TV producers know what they are doing, marketing products and names to it’s young viewing audiences. Allowing companies and corporations to advertise explicitly to children. They are however, willing to say it's not advertising.

When asked by a Ralph Nader group about McDonald’s “commercials” on Sesame Street, Gary Knell, President and CEO of Sesame Workshop replied, "PBS is non-commercial, and all corporate underwriters on public television must adhere to strict guidelines provided by PBS in order for their messages to air. As such, the McDonald's sponsorship messages do not show product, announce promotions, or contain any call to action, nor do any our Sesame Street characters appear in them." Gary is probably a nice man, but I disagree with him. McDonald's sponsorship messages are paid for to be aired.

Children and their parents gain a whole new respect for the sponsors that fund their Sesame Street friends. They also hear their names over and over. Instead of naming every person who has ever donated to PBS we only hear the "big names" like, the No Child Left Behind Act, the Ford Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation, the US Department of Education, McDonald’s and America On Line. Isn't it great to know these companies care about you and your kids?

Not only that, these “expert” educators, psychologists, and world leaders also believe that these kids' parent’s have ideas, customs, religions that are “old,” outdated and probably unhealthy, things that need to be relearned through watching programs they offer on TV like Sesame street. They think that they, not you, know what is best for your kids and believe your children need their expertise and global guidance and protection they all share a vision for every child’s future.

Take for example, the Sesame Street “Old School” DVD that contains episodes from Sesame Street's first five seasons. These archived programs are now on DVD and no longer are to be aired on television. They come with a disclaimer stating that the DVDs are intended for parents, not the kids. Seriously, the disclaimer for the Sesame Street product reads that they are intended “for parents and may not meet the needs of today's preschoolers.” Really. They obviously think that adults have nothing better to do than purchase these products and sit around all day watching Maria and Big Bird on DVD.

As for "meeting the needs" of preschoolers, one should ask,“What, exactly, is the recommended daily allowance of social programming the average child needs?" and “How much TV does a preschooler really NEED?”

The American Academy of Pediatrics, (AAP) concerned that children were spending too much time in front of the television issued a formal statement on August 2,1999, saying, “Children of all ages are constantly learning new things. The first 2 years of life are especially important in the growth and development of your child's brain. During this time, children need good, positive interaction with other children and adults.” I think that this means interacting with Cookie Monster and Maria and other puppet friends just doesn’t count.

The AAP also reported, “Too much television can negatively affect early brain development. This is especially true at younger ages, when learning to talk and play with others is so important. Until more research is done about the effects of TV on very young children, the American Academy of Pediatrics does not recommend television for children age 2 or younger.”

Meanwhile, back on the tube, PBS, as well as other media producers is not ashamed to target the cradle with it’s programming schedule, after all, these mega corporations pay big bucks to push and pull the strings behind the puppets that teach the babies a new reality to live in. We all know that PBS creations like Teletubbies and Sesame Beginnings are created with the under-two crowds in mind.

The problem here is that big corporations vie for ruling power in the world. Like a huge machine they work really hard to to get bigger all the time. The rest of us are just money in the making for them, cogs that turn their machine. Like trees and water, like coal and diamonds, children too, are valuable a commodity. Seen as a natural resource they are merely being cultivated, mined. They need to be taught the value systems of these big corporations, not their parents, they need to be street-wise, globally minded citizens before they understand learn the old ways of their parents or dare to actually think for themselves as they play outside the box. They are after all destined to become a part of the mass production and be a useful to society, as a whole.

The Sesames Street experts, are social engineers. They gladly partner with parents of small children, because like the businesses that underwrite them, they know there is something to be said for rocking all the little cradles of the world.