For anyone who has kids, grandkids, or simply is around kids, you know what Nickelodeon is. With 80% household penetration, it tops all of the other children’s cable networks. The Nickelodeon web-site is the number one children’s online destination. It is one of the nation’s most profitable networks.
A senior executive explained Nickelodeon’s stance: “The whole premise of our company was founded on serving kids, and what we’ve found is that when you do good things for kids, it happens to be good for business.”
So my question is this: Does Nickelodeon really care about kids, or do they really care about business?
Here are some revealing insights from Juliet Schor’s book, Born To Buy.
The secret of Nickelodeon’s success is its core philosophy: “kids rule.” In everything that they do, Nickelodeon tries to take the child’s perspective. The network has positioned itself as kids’ best friend, on their side in an often hostile environment. Donna Sabino, director for research and development at Nickelodeon’s Magazine Group, explained the thinking to me: “It’s hard to be a kid in an adult world. The adult world doesn’t respect kids. Everywhere else adults rule; at Nick kids rule.” The Nickelodeon worldview is that childhood has gotten tough. “Kids are experiencing increased pressure for achievement and activity. They don’t have enough time for homework, they’re overscheduled.” Nickelodeon gives them what they need: “funny, happy, empowering.” There are thirteen criteria a program must have to pass the muster at the network, including good quality, a kid-centered message, humor, and edgy visual design. In theory, these are good criteria. But in practice, when kid-centric and edgy come together, what often results is attitude–an antiauthoritarian us-versus-them sensibility that pervades the brand.
In my opinion, the last thing that children need with their parents is an “us-versus-them” attitude.
Jesus loves children for who they are, not as a means to an end. All of us adults should do the same.
You’re right and it’s interesting that you mention this as my wife and I have talked about this in the past. Our TV spends a lot of time on Nick (and honestly, I love SpongeBob as much as the next guy), but I have noticed in many of the shows geared to pre/young teens as well as some of the cartoons (Fairly Odd Parents and Jimmy Neutron are two that come to mind) parents are often shown as dumb and “without a clue”. As kids we all thought we were smarter than our parents, but now as a parent, I realize that my parents were wiser beyond what I could imagine. I thought perhaps I was being over-sensitive to some of the Nick shows, but it appears I’m not completely alone.
Will I stop my kids from watching Nick? Not likely, but I will have to be careful that my children are not being used as “a means to an end”.
BTW Greg, great blog!!
There’s positive and negative in this assessment of the Nick culture. Clearly the us vs. them thing is no good. However, I believe that we can learn from Nickelodeon in our ministry to kids. Why not use some of the same tools that have proven so effective in engaging kids in what toys to want, what music to like, etc., to engage them in learning about their savior and about God’s love for them. Soemthing we saw when we visited Northpoint Church in Atlanta was that we can use all of the bright colors, cool music, comedy, zanieness, and visually engaging backdrops to get kids to pay attention to gospel teaching. Now obviously there can be a financial impact to following that approach, but it warrants some good discussion. I know that Treehouse Kids leadership “gets” this and is constantly seeking ways to use these types of tools while still being responsible stewards of the budget it is given.
But even more important than engaging these types of tools in our teaching is having the volunteer support to run the ministry. I’m very hopeful that our month-long focus on kids is just the beginning of a culture shift at Rivertree, and that we’ll be overwhelmed with interest from parents (or even non parents for that matter) who want to take an active role in teaching our children – so that we never have to close the doors on a kid who wants to get into a weekend class.
In this post you sound SO MUCH like my brother who is also a Pastor.
Disney and Starbucks hold a common philosophy of service to their core demographic. Must be something to it, eh?
Nice post.
My very best,
Marty Daniels
If you’re a parent, you need to watch Nick and with your children so you know what they’re watching. I can’t stress this enough. It’s not just Nick but the other channels that they run such as Nick Jr. and Noggin.
While I get a kick out of watching re-runs of Fresh Prince, it’s actually the “younger child” channels that you need to pay extra attention to. Realize this:
Noggin goes off the air at 6 pm when they shut down their pre-school programming. At 6:01 they begin their teen programs. I wasn’t allowed to watch DeGrassi Jr. High when I was growing up, and now, NOBODY in my house is allowed to watch DeGrassi: The Next Generation. The programs that are run on Noggin (or “The-N” as it’s called after 6) and Nick Jr. are teen soap operas that are worse than the adult ones. Shows like Summerland, Rock Star, and DeGrassi are super-saturated with teens having sex, having abortions, being single moms, posing for internet porn, being promiscuous, drinking, swearing, doing drugs, being rebellious, you name it they’ve got it. It’s not that they’re trying to warn kids about it…they’re actually glorifying it.
And it’s never just one half hour episode. It’s wall to wall, back to back to back episodes all the way until 6 am. Makes me wonder what happened to the FCC’s “Safe Harbor Rule.” These shows make me sick to my stomach because I know so many kids are watching them and thinking that it’s OK to live this way.
How’s that for marketing? Subtle, yet effective…and revolting.