Good answer! I will steal it if the issue comes up here.
The mobsters simply look like our in-laws, so there’s no problem there. The one that I have the most problem with is the junkie. My daughter (2) gets very worried when I can’t fast forward through that one quickly enough. “Sick?” she asks. “Yes, honey, he’s sick, but he’ll get better,” I lie.
I don’t actually think that she’s going to be scarred for life from any of these ads. I just note the irony of putting them on during children’s programming. (Although to be fair, I haven’t seen the junkie one on Nickelodeon; I’ve only personally seen it during The Daily Show - it’s her favorite show after Sesame Street, but not technically a children’s show, so I accept that risk knowingly.)
I just want to chime in with a :dubious: at the references to domination play being “sick” and “deviant.” Not something children should be exposed to, certainly, but that issue aside – do you really think that?
While I have sympathy for your view that this was inappropriate to be aired on Nickleodeon, where I might call you a prude is in your description of consensual sado-masochism as:
The phrase you need is a firm, “We’ll talk about that later.” Especially useful when the child pipes up with an innocent, loud, and dirty question on the bus or in church. Allows you to make a face-saving exit and gives you time to think of an appropriate answer.
Well, Mr. Krabs did go on a panty raid to feel young once- although he got in trouble after it turned out it was his own mother’s house he was raiding.
I just think it’s kind of ironic that the ad in question is about parental controls.
Many of the shows do have double entendres in the style of the old Looney Tunes*, as well as other jokes that only adults would get. But I don’t think any of the shows today toe the line as much as, say Ren & Stimpy or Rocko’s Modern Life used to.
*Yes, I realize the old Looney Tunes and such were made for adult audiences. But if you think about it, when they were shown on kid-friendly TV, it’s surprising that the violence and jokes about minorities were edited out but the jokes featuring attractive women and men ogling them were kept in when they were shown on kid-friendly TV. Are the sexy Tex Avery women really any worse than Mistress Mandy?
:: patting self on back :: Actually, I explained to him right quick that Sam-I-Am doesn’t have a penis because we don’t play with other people’s penises. Same reason why Barbie doesn’t have a vagina (heading that one off at the pass).
I agree that little tykes have no sense of context (they’d BETTER NOT have any sense of context). It’s just - why even introduce it?
Same reason I no longer watch the evening news. Sure, I could come up with a thousand pablum explanations for all the violence, but why create a dual reality that has to be discarded later?
