NEWS RELEASE
For More Information Contact: Robert Weissman (202) 387-8030
For Immediate Release: March 12th, 2008
Commercial Alert Letter to HarperCollins Children's Books Regarding "Mackenzie Blue"
After HarperCollins Children’s Books announced its intent to publish a series of children’s books entitled “Mackenzie Blue,” Commercial Alert sent the following letter to Susan Katz, publisher of HarperCollins Children’s Books, opposing the decision. According to news reports, the “Mackenzie Blue” series will be infiltrated with product-placement hidden advertisements and will be designed effectively as a marketing vehicle for big companies. Commercial Alert is a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit that seeks to limit excessive commercialism in society.
Following is the text of the letter:
Dear Ms. Katz,
I am writing from Commercial Alert, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, DC that is concerned with excessive commercialism in society, and particularly the impact on children.
We are appalled at your recently announced plans to publish a new series of books targeted at 8- to 12-year-olds featuring the character “Mackenzie Blue.” According to news reports, the Mackenzie Blue series of children’s books will be infiltrated with product-placement hidden advertisements and will be designed effectively as a marketing vehicle for big companies.
We urge you to abandon these plans immediately.
Your news release touts the Mackenzie Blue series for teaching kids and especially girls about how to relate to peers and develop a positive self-image, and helping them build an environmental consciousness.
These purported objectives of the series are totally incompatible with the overriding commercial partnering strategy of the series.
Excessive commercialism in youth culture is undermining kids’ self-esteem, as it substitutes an inventory of what they possess for the developmental challenge of defining who they are. It teaches children similarly to judge classmates and peers based on what they wear and how they appear, interfering with their ability to relate to others based on their unique personalities and to appreciate diverse personalities and styles. Excessive commercialism is heavily correlated with the youth obesity epidemic. And, of course, the commercial influences and the emphasis on intensified consumption is incompatible with the fundamental ecological challenges facing the planet.
Beyond these specific concerns, marketing to young children is wrong for the fundamental reason that—even in a technology-heavy environment—many kids under the age of 11 do not have the ability to discern advertisements and promotions from entertainment and life experience. Hidden advertisements, such as product placements, and integrated multi-media marketing strategies make this line-drawing that much more difficult.
Children and adolescents are already assaulted with advertisements on a daily basis—books, of all things, should be a haven from the commercial assault on kids. Books should educate and entertain children, not serve as a vehicle to deliver hidden marketing messages encouraging them to buy a particular brand of shoe or soft drink or cosmetics.
The Mackenzie Blue concept is a horrible degradation of the honorable field of publishing. If there is virtue in the Mackenzie Blue story concept, it will only be redeemed by liberating it from the commercial entanglements your plans seem to envision. We strongly urge you to remove all product placements and eliminate all tie-ins with external advertisers before proceeding with your publishing plans.
Sincerely,
Robert Weissman,
Managing Director