Times are changing, and now everything rests in the hands of a frequently overlooked group of individuals who have yet to receive an education on the concept of tax deductions. Children, bearing a new weight on their shoulders, are becoming increasingly doted on as of late. Talk on how to enhance their image as ‘the coolest kid on the block’ has been all the buzz. A central priority has been ensuring that these children receive the best that others can offer. They’ve also been entrusted with major tasks such as exploring a universe of possibilities and unlocking the key to their imagination. All of this, while getting the new toy adapted from their favorite on-screen character for only $19.99 – now in purple!
In this era of advanced technology, children have access to the digital world at their fingertips. So accustomed to entertainment, the advertising industry has made numerous developments towards entertainment that caters to children. As a result, cartoons have increasingly leaned towards prioritizing commercial gains, serving a purpose of a mere distraction for kids, while lacking a certain level of complexity.
When weighing the options, these heavily advertised T.V. shows and cartoons may prefer to focus their attention on marketing and merchandise sales to children over their educational content. Picture a group of members from a production company gathered within the confines of a boardroom. Papers are shuffled, discussions are heated, and the scent of markers lingers in the air due to their overuse of the public whiteboard. What’s all this commotion for? They are finding answers to a single, straightforward question: How do we sell to our young and impressionable audience?
Through the use of persuasive marketing techniques such as repetition and storytelling, production companies, networks, and different platforms ensure they have the necessary components in their marketing to encourage children to buy a wide variety of merchandise. This includes but is not limited to toys, clothing, and accessories. Irresistible catchy jingles, alluring graphics and colors, and child-directed advertising may be found intentionally embedded into entertainment, increasing the likelihood of a credit card transaction.
Some forms of entertainment however have no choice but to financially depend on advertised profit and are doing so as a necessity for continuation of these pastimes. Unfortunately, an influx of consumers could potentially result in the actual form of entertainment itself being synonymous with their materialized and shelved counterparts which, in some cases, may force the original intention of nurturing young minds to take a back seat.
More and More Curious
From that remote controlled car in the mall to the brand of yogurt in your fridge, children often find themselves in the presence of familiar fictional characters. While coincidental easter eggs, references to media, such as these can serve as fun surprises for kids, the excessiveness of these marketing tools can gradually cause the adoption of a certain mindset. When seeing these toys, clothes, and snacks being associated with references that children are already familiar with, the children are more likely to associate these items, where either object or concept lose their separate applications and meanings, in the minds of these children. The hunger of curiosity is already being spoon-fed to them, preventing them from making their own connections with these objects as a learning experience.
Do I Have Your Attention?
‘You have all but three seconds to impress me. Go.’
The moment that the remote or play button is hit starts the survival of the fittest. Colors from every area of the color spectrum fluoresce intricate in different patterns and free-flowing motions. Next, queue the rhythmic, enticing tune that one would have to fight every fiber of their being to prevent themselves from humming back. Last but not least, the main attraction (whether it is an action scene or an immediate conflict) smacks dab in the beginning. This is all to make sure kids opt for staying to watch before something else captures their attention, and a ploy to get parents to open their wallets.
As the years have progressed, attention spans have become shorter. In 2015, the average attention span was recorded to be 8.25 seconds compared to the 12 seconds recorded in 2000. As a result, marketing teams have found themselves trying to adapt to these new numbers and trying to shake off competitors. Consequently, children are left with storylines and graphics that are much more stimulatory than they were in the past.
A common example is the widely watched YouTube channel and TV show owned by Moonbug Entertainment, Cocomelon, known for its fast-paced transitions and sing-alongs. Cocomelon has gathered controversial opinions on whether or not keeping up with the channel does more harm or good for its young audience.
Dr. Jerrica Sannes, who holds a Ph.D. in early childhood curriculum development, mentions in an article for Ann Arbor Family how the stimulation children get from watching Cocomelon causes a flow of dopamine levels high in comparison to those levels with everyday experiences; essentially, this gets the kids dependent on the shows like Cocomelon, relying on them for their spark of creativity. This harms children’s ability to derive their own sense of imagination and fun from themselves due to the lack of space for interpretation.
Change of Pace
Only a handful of cartoons stand to flip the script of this narrative and, instead, foster the emotional and intellectual growth of children’s minds who are watching, a textbook case being Bluey by Joe Brumm.
Bluey is an Australian animated television series that centers its story around a family of dogs. The show consists of characters such as parents Chili and Bandit Heeler, with their two young children, Bluey and Bingo, along with numerous side characters with everyday lives that are no different from its viewers. Through its characters, Brumm relays important morals and lessons, and these educational aspects are also paired with a resonation that makes a wide variety of people feel seen. Bluey’s characters fall under a wide variety of communities such as those who are neurodivergent and those who have non-nuclear families. At its core, Bluey is plot-dependent on a particular game the Heeler family and Co. are playing which segues into a lesson learned by one or more of the characters, all while being formatted in a very relatable and realistic way.
Captivating storylines can have a permanent impact on children by shaping their emotional and intellectual development in positive ways. However, according to Dr. Eszter Somogyi from the Department of Psychology at the University of Portsmouth, there is a negative aspect to excessive screen time, but this is more related to quality of the media rather than the actual quantity of time spent indulging in digital media such as watching television. A key reason for this is that kids, like super-absorbent sponges, take in any and all information they can.
Due to this, even the most minuscule of details latch onto these young minds. Surprisingly, it isn’t those adventurous hectic plot-lines that get the majority of kids’ wheels turning. That form of storytelling may capture their interest but don’t allow children to let their spongy superpower come into play in a way that benefits their own development. This is mainly because what these children retain may not be very applicable; it’s less likely that they will be able to put themselves in the shoes of the characters they’re watching and it’s harder to see other points of view. Rather, it is soothing interactions, understandable plotlines, and calming voices that enable children to reach the full extent of their observation ability that allow them to translate all their new information into their own personal lives. If the input was worthy of being considered a top-tier consumed piece of media, the children’s behaviors and thought processes would follow suit. They allow children to submerge themselves into all types of worlds and cultures, far different from their own, fostering empathy and understanding, as they connect with characters and their experiences.
The creator of Bluey has worked on many television programs prior to it, predominantly children’s shows that inspired him to concoct his own creation. He had his mind set on making Bluey as connectable as possible. In one article in Vulture Magazine, Brumm highlights the excessiveness of inaccurate tropes and clichés in children’s shows, once saying that his own kids wouldn’t attempt to repair a broken object in hopes no one would notice, which is a theme used in many T.V. shows. These repetitive concepts in children’s television, often attempting to capture the child-like behavior, instead create this divide between entertainment and real life, essentially making the experience two different worlds to the children entirely. Brumm wanted to highlight authentic depiction of children and themes of life that kids can learn from and picture themselves in.
From ‘For Real Life?’ to Real Life
We can see implications of Bluey imitating life in quite a few examples from the show itself. One example, from Season 3, Episode 14, ‘Pass the Parcel,’ we follow the youngest Heeler family member, Bingo, to a series of birthday parties where she and her peers play ‘pass the parcel.’ In the beginning of the episode, we see a distinct difference between two generations and how they were taught and behave. Lucky’s dad, the father of one of the children whose birthday Bingo attends, mentions that, when he was a kid, instead of a present in every paper layer there was only one prize in the middle meant for a single winner. Upon hearing this, the other children start wanting to play this new version of the game, but Bingo is still seen to have a negative reaction to always losing. However, in a subtle progression in a sequence of birthday parties, we see Bingo become accustomed to the notion that sometimes she won’t always win and starts feeling happy about the joys her friends feel when they win.
Later, Bingo’s mother Chilli asks how she was doing after another failed attempt at winning the parcel prize. Bingo responds with acceptance, to which her mother replies, “You know what Bingo? I think you’re getting pretty good at losing.”
In this episode, there was no huge problem that needed solving immediately and no perfectly spoken lecture given to Bingo or her peers. It was solely a kid figuring out how to come to the resolution that things aren’t always going to go their way or the way they hoped, and that’s okay. These are takeaways that can be taken from the seat on the couch to the real world and will allow kids to see their own nature from an outside perspective. The show also doesn’t use avoiding tactics like many other shows do when addressing schemes they don’t think children can handle. Instead, Bluey confidently hands the young audience the torch of responsibility, trusting that they can digest these newly-introduced topics properly and apply them to their daily lives.
Kids also aren’t the only ones Bluey is targeted towards; older audiences can learn from it as well. Parents and teens alike are also kept in mind during the creation and execution of the cartoon. Brumm makes sure to include as many perspectives as he can in his writing, including the guardians sitting down with their children to watch their entertainment alongside them. “The coolest thing about Bluey, in my opinion,” said Nadia Naba ’26, “is the duality of it; it has these deep underlying themes that kids are internalizing without even realizing it, and that applies to adults too.”
The hyperawareness that Bluey possesses is one that inescapable from a large diverse group of individuals. The show itself at its basic components is about family, the bonding time strengthening family relationships. The details embedded into the show being both an example and catalyst for the very thing they preach, is especially the pinnacle of a production team who care and want to create for the benefit of its audience.
The way that Bluey has achieved such a level of realism is through its thought-provoking episodes. A popular example is in Season 2, Episode 49, entitled ‘Baby Race,’ centered around parenting. In this episode, we get a blast to the past, when Chilli and Bandit were first-time parents raising young Bluey. We follow Chilli as she struggles to teach Bluey to crawl as other children around Chilli and Bluey have begun to do. Through the plot, we see Chilli worry about whether she and Bandit are doing things correctly and question her role as a parental figure. We later see Chilli interacting with another character, Bella, established to have many years of experience in parenting. At this moment, the camera focuses on Bella, as if she is speaking directly to the parents watching, as she says, “You’re doing great.”
The creators of Bluey intentionally directed this message to the parents watching, many of them maybe even first time parents themselves, in order to connect to them, allowing them to be aware that people know the challenging experiences that come with parenting and that they deserve comfort in knowing that their role as a parent are secure ones. The creators of the show wanted to make known how despite the anxiety and constant thoughts running through guardians’ minds about potential mistakes they may make that they are trying as best as they can and that is enough. They wanted for parents worried about meeting each milestone and making sure they provide every possible chance for their children to succeed and develop well to realize they are doing well and are capable as a way to attempt to put them at ease, something many parents are in need of seeing.
To watch Bluey on DisneyNow, click HERE.
Only a handful of cartoons stand to flip the script of this narrative and, instead, foster the emotional and intellectual growth of children’s minds who are watching, a textbook case being Bluey by Joe Brumm.