• Children's cable nets get ready for summertime push.
  With children off school for the summer, Disney Channel, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network are about to launch a number of special events, programming stunts and promotions targeting young viewers, according to this report. In the past three years, the number of viewers ages 2 to 14 has increased about 5%. Variety

• "Nielsen reported TV viewing is at its highest point in history.  That means in the entire 59 years since the company began compiling time-spent statistics, the numbers have never been bigger."
  
  "The average American household, per day, spends eight hours and 27 minutes in front of the television."
  
  Adweek Media Chris Rohrs, president: Television Bureau of Advertising

• The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced plans to grow a
  model sustainable garden on its grounds on the National Mall in
  Washington, D.C., the Washington Post reports.  If you didn't start your
  garden during TURNOFF WEEK, there is still time.

• What happened to listening to birds sing, watching the clouds pass overhead?
  
  Imagine filling the patio or backyard with...a high-definition flat panel while lounging in the pool or inviting the neighbors over for outdoor movie night on the 100" outdoor home theater screen in the backyard. It's not only possible, it's probably more affordable than you think.
                                  -Consumer Electronics Association Newsletter

• According to advertising Age, reporting on the Nielsen ratings: Thursday, April 23, "The first night of...sweeps brought new episodes of big shows. But it didn't bring enough viewers, as every Thursday prime-time program under-delivered... in the ad-centric 18-to-49 demographic."
• THE GREAT AMERICAN

  TWEET-OFF

  Saturday, April 25, 2009

  To join in click here 

   
  The BIG RIDE

  Saturday, April 25, 2009

  Bikes, scooters, skates or skateboards…

  Unplug and ride…organize your friends and family

  Or just ride alone, but unplug and feel the wind in your hair

    Join millions around the world for this day of activity

• A striking new study says almost one in five American 4-year-olds is
  obese, and the rate is alarmingly higher among American Indian children.
  The Wall Street Journal April 7, 2009
• "...technology separates us and makes more of our communication indirect, impersonal and emotionally flat. With headsets on and our hands busily texting, we are less aware of one another's behavior in public space. Count the number of people with cellphones and personal entertainment devices when you walk down a street. Self-involved bloggers, readers of niche news, all of us listening to our personal playlists: we narrowly miss each other."
  -Sudhir Venkatesh, a professor of sociology at Columbia
• If you are from a school, or childcare program in or around Buffalo, NY,
  we have something for YOUR agency.  Please take a moment and email us at
  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or give a call at 202-333-9220.  We, and the
  Buffalo Bison want to help you celebrate and participate in TURNOFF WEEK
  April 20-26, 2009!
• TONIGHT ONLY  CSTA Executive Director, Robert Kesten will be on 89.3 FM, WPFW Radio in Wasington, DC at 7:00 pm (ET) on March 16th. It is CALL IN radio so please give a call.  You should be able to access the program at their website, wpfw.org, as well. 
• The McKinsey Quarterly interview
  
  Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation CEO:
  Our foundation focuses on kids and how and why they do or don't exercise. Over the past 25 years, our kids' lifestyle has become a lot more sedentary. For most of them, much of that change can be attributed to the fact that they spend so much time in front of computer and TV screens, sometimes multiple screens. That has two effects: one, kids usually aren't moving when they're in front of a screen; two, they're getting bombarded with ads for unhealthy foods.
  
  Children and adolescents spend an average of nearly six-and-a-half hours a day watching TV, playing video games, and using other types of media. That's a big change from the way kids spent their time a generation ago. Changing the amount of screen time is essential. We're investing more than $31 million over the next three years to gather evidence about what can help kids get more active.
  
   
• "TV exposure in infants has been associated with increased risk of obesity, attention problems, and decreased sleep quality," researcher Michael Rich, MD, MPH, director of the Center on Media and Child Health (Harvard), says in a news release. "Parents need to understand that infants and toddlers do not learn or benefit in any way from viewing TV at an early age."
• Consider that the average American household consists of 2.7 persons and contains 2.9 television sets, in front of which we sit for record-setting spells, according to Nielsen figures. In the quarter ended Sept. 30, the typical American watched 142 hours of television monthly, up about five hours from the same quarter the previous year. Internet use averaged more than 27 hours monthly, an increase of an hour and a half, according to Nielsen.
  
  (If you were to suggest that someone entertain them self) with An audible book, that requires the listener to mentally visualize the narrative. A video, even if no more visual than an author facing the camera, offers the appealing prospect of relief from such heavy lifting. In screen culture, video rules.
  
  The International Herald Tribune reporting on recent research from Nielsen
  Ratings Group. February 2009.
       
• Recent Study:  Does television viewing predict dietary intake five years later in high school students and young adults?
  
  Conducted by: Daheia J Barr-Anderson email, Nicole I Larson email, Melissa C Nelson email, Dianne Neumark-Sztainer email and Mary Story email
  
  International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity 2009, 6:7doi:10.1186/1479-5868-6-7 Published: 30 January 2009
  
  Conclusions:
  
  Television viewing in middle and high school predicted poorer dietary intake five years later. Adolescents are primary targets of advertising for fast food restaurants, snack foods, and sugar-sweetened beverages, which may influence their food choices. Television viewing, especially during high school, may have long-term effects on eating choices and contribute to poor eating habits in young adulthood.
• The consumer electronics industry often times is proud of situations and accomplishments that make many of us confused or even angry.  In a recent piece they found of interest, coming from Forbes we see a new trend spreading quickly around the world, they call it a revolution demanded by the consumer, to us it looks like the industry pushing the young into outer space, judge for yourself:
  
  ...in Seoul, Korea, visitors will be blown away by the number of people consuming rich audio-visual content--some of it fed via traditional broadcast, some streamed over the Internet onto computers and lots of it loaded to personal media players. Consumers are so engaged that they do not even stop when walking around in traffic!
  
  This they look at as a positive?  Now we have people living in bubbles even in the middle of the busiest streets in the world, seems like a dangerous situation, not something an industry should pat itself on the back for.
• This describes the new report out from the Cable Television Association.  We all know that they have our best interest at heart.  This report is for sale to their members as well as advertisers and marketers.
  
  
  Mind-blowing ad-effectiveness research!
  What's really happening in consumers' minds when exposed to advertising across platforms? Find out how actual brain wave activity changes when consumers are exposed to ads across three different platforms (linear TV, online and mobile) and the effect on attention, emotional engagement and memory retention. Brand new research.
•  "The computer is an important tool, no one could do without it, but for me it's only a tool and it doesn't replace thinking.  It can make you disconnected and autistic, and that's why we always say, Bring it out of the computer, print it up, use paper, use physicalities and models to understand and anticipate what this thing will be in the end; something physical, something real, something for people." Pierre de Meuron, one of the world's leading architects as quoted in the Wall Street Journal magazine.
• What's behind the dumbing down of America? The Intercollegiate Studies Institute found that passive activities, such as watching television (including TV news) and talking on the phone, diminish civic literacy.
• "We're going to have to parent better, and turn off the television set, the computer, and put the video games away, and instill a sense of excellence in our children," said President-Elect Obama.
• "The computer is an important tool, no one could do without it, but for me it's only a tool and it doesn't replace thinking.  It can make you disconnected and autistic, and that's why we always say, Bring it out of the computer, print it up, use paper, use physicalities and models to understand and anticipate what this thing will be in the end; something physical, something real, something for people." Pierre de Meuron, one of the world's leading architects as quoted in the Wall Street Journal magazine.
• From a recent New York Times Magazine Section interview with actor Jennifer Aniston when she was asked if she ever saw her father, also an actor, on television: "I went to the Rudolf Steiner School in New York, and you're not allowed to watch TV."
• From The Wall Street Journal:
  Disney looks to capture young male audience
  The soon-to-launch Disney XD brand, which comprises a cable channel and a companion Web site that includes a social network and games, is aimed at the elusive viewing audience of boys ages 6 to 14. The channel is a rebranded version of Toon Disney; programming is expanding to include live-action shows, original movies, music and sports from sister-channel ESPN. Rich Ross, president of Disney Channels Worldwide, said, "We looked at the landscape and feel that girls are being served -- if not superserved -- and preschoolers are also well-served, but boys really haven't been." If this bothers you as much as it does us, please take a moment and tell Mr. Bob Iger, Chairman and CEO of Disney, what you think.  Here is the address and telephone number:
  Mr. Robert Iger, Chairman & CEO
  Walt Disney Company
  500 S. Buena Vista St.
  Burbank, CA 91521-9722
  Phone: 818-560-1000
  Fax: 818-560-1930
• Disney is not alone in its efforts to keep our children sedentary and on the couch. The Cartoon Network's new online game allows users to create avatars to battle alongside popular Cartoon Network characters.  More than 2.5 million accounts were created during the game's beta phase with subscriptions starting at $5.95 per month. "We are excited to launch FusionFall, our most ambitious game to date from Cartoon Network," Paul Condolora, senior VP of digital for Turner Broadcasting System Inc.'s Animation, Young Adults and Kids Media Group, said in a statement. "With ground-breaking game play, FusionFall expands on our commitment to producing quality games. We know kids will enjoy
  teaming up with their favorite Cartoon Network characters in this new dynamic world." It seems as if The Cartoon Network forgot that there is a real world kids need to live in as well.  That world, we hope, does not include battles,
  but does include playing, going outside, reading and being good citizens.  Unfortunately, that doesn't add a minimum of $5.95 a month to The Cartoon Networks bottom line. The Cartoon Network is owned by Time Warner and is part of their Turner Division.