So, there's some beef going around between the Baby Einstein corporation and their arch nemesis,
Campaign for a Commercial - Free Childhood. I guess they CCFC doesn't like those Baby Einstein videos because they, at some point, claimed them to be educational. That claim didn't sit well with the folks over at the CCFC and they're looking to threaten Disney, Baby Einstein's parent company, with a good old fashioned class action law suit. They took off their gloves and are ready to play hard ball (I don't know much about sports, but the phrase "hard ball" typically refers to Baseball, which I believe requires a baseball gloves to play, so that whole sentence could just be completely wrong in every way).
"A large corporation tried to convince consumers to buy their product by using misleading information? *GASP* I've never heard of such a thing"! That's probably what you're telling yourself in that little naive subconscious of yours. You're probably wondering how I got into your head like that, too. Well that's neither here nor there (another phrase I hate passionately). After reading the front page article on
Yahoo!, I got the impression that the folks over at the CCFC were just pissed that they got swindled. Not as bad as that time I got a bootleg copy of
The Dark Knight before it hit theaters which turned out to be a XXX ebony porn flick with the same title, yet had nothing in common. Haha! Egg on my face, right (terrible phrase numero thrice)?
I can understand how they would feel swindled, and swindled they were, but the fact that there are people out there in the Universe (specifically planet Earth) who believed in the magical advancements in DVD technology (i.e. education through repetitive exposure to bright colors, loud (and annoying) sounds, numbers, letters, and anthropomorphic creatures). Allowing them to sit their probably already mushy brained children in front of the television to free up a few hours in the day AND educate them at the same time! That's a completely ridiculous notion. Anyone who thought their kid was actually learning anything from something like this is loony tunes! Kids will watch anything on TV, especially kids that can't walk. Poor kids.
I'd like to borrow from Mr. Colbert himself and direct a "Wag of the Finger" to you really stupid people out there for trying to educate your children with television (there's no "Tip of the Hat" for you, either!). What the hell is wrong with you? Do you want your probably already mushy brained child to grow up with the attention span of a squirrel on crack?! It shouldn't take a room full of scientists who've spent 10-15 years studying the effects of television on a person's ability to focus for extended periods of time for you to get that watching a lot of TV can really mess you up. It's common sense! How many times have you been in a conversation where you all of a sudden are distracted by the whole Ross and Rachel thing (which if you ask me, Ross was in the right. They were on a break) and then all of a sudden you have no idea what's... and that's why elephants have large ears. Wait... what?
The point is, I'm disappointed in everyone. I mean EVERYONE! Disney for being douche bags and telling people their crap will school their kids in the ways of theoretical physics via Baby Einstein DVDs. The people who bought the DVDs for being douche nozzles for thinking it really worked, being proven wrong with stupid babies, and then trying to make some money off of it. And finally you, the reader, just 'cause I like listing things and people in threes.
E=MC... Ooooh, SHINY!!!
Comments (12)
LOL!
hah...
Anything to make the green, maybe? They WERE on a break, but I'd still be kinda pissed if I were Rachel. And I'm liking the Halloween-themed avatar pic!
We call Baby Einstein "Baby Crack" in our house. In a totally unapologetic-I-have-two-kids-and-a-house-to-clean-way, I still freaking love Baby Einstein. I don't care if it makes them a genius or not, it gives me twenty minutes to do dishes, cook, or go to the bathroom in peace. And contrary to popular belief, kids won't just watch anything you plop them down in front of. My 3 year old watching stuff on PBS couldn't interest my son less. But, I think it's all about the parents- you can't sit your kid in front of a tv all day and expect them to learn from all the mindless crap. You have to even it out with, ya know- other mindless crap.
@beccabussa - It really is a great way to occupy the kids for an bit while you need to do something, there's no doubt about that. But to expect the videos to make your kid smart is just ignorant parenting. Even if it did make kids smart, they still would blindly sit their kids in front of the tv for hours and that's what gets me. Do a little research at the very least. Make sure it's okay first.
Class action lawsuits are dumb. Nobody actually gets any money from them, why does anyone even bother?
@ModernBunny - It's the promise of money being given to you for free. People like free money. Throw in the gratification of someone having to pay for doing you wrong and BAM! There you have it.
Glad to see you're still alive, by the way.
Some people like to point out how Einstein would've probably failed to become a scientist if his parents had tried to stuff him with educational videos. They let him be a curious kid who liked to figure out how things worked.
jesus dude, you seriously need to get out of the house more
@talking_machine - He probably would've resented his parents and became a musician.
@Frankenchrist - You're right. How's Hawaii sound? I hear Ewa Beach is pretty nice this time of year.
hahaha my mom bought the baby einsten dvds for my 2 little sisters and they LOVED them.
my parents didn't substitute it for reading or educating them or anything, but they did stay pretty interested in the TV when they were on so my parents could get stuff done.
also, they have classical music in them.. isn't that said to make brain activity better?
:shrug: all I know is one of my little sisters is classic ADHD and one isn't.. but they both watched the DVDs haha
@raspberryjade - I think that's actually true about the classical music. I'm sure I've read it somewhere. I wonder if it's specifically classical music that makes you smarter, or just music in general?