Children's Programming: Cartoons

Consumerism

A growing body of media research emphasizes the commercial aspect of children's cartoons as marketing tools that promote lifelong consumerism. Mainstream children's animated television brands young consumers by creating multimedia franchises that seamlessly use entertainment content to promote merchandise. In addition to developing toys from existing cartoon characters, the industry has transitioned to specializing in toy-driven content. By developing “licensable characters” that could become lead characters in television cartoons, producers also ensured longevity of franchises that could engage in circular promotion, whereby demand for the cartoon enhances demand for products and vice versa. Toy manufacturers began developing product lines with marketable characters around which animated television content could be created. Program-length commercials such as The Hot Wheels Show (created by toy giant Mattel), Transformers (created by Hasbro), and Strawberry Shortcake (created in part by General Mills) spawned highly profitable merchandise lines and were able to skirt government regulations designed to limit advertising to children. Key to marketing cartoons and products to children is the advertising industry's practice of segmenting young audiences by age and gender in order to target branding efforts. By so doing, toy and production companies maximize profits while perpetuating gender stereotypes in content.

Gender

Cable television outlets such as Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and The Disney Channel have taken an active role in developing representations of female characters that are marketed as empowering for young girl viewers. In an analysis of children's media, “girl power,” and consumerism, Sarah Banet-Weiser, in her 2004 article “Girls Rule! Gender, Feminism, and Nickelodeon,” explains that the Nickelodeon network was one of the first outlets for progressive representations of young girls and remains an industry standard for producing [Page 32]television content that appeals to the latest generation of girls who have come to expect girl-power programming. Nickelodeon is Cartoon Network's closest competitor in both the children's television market and the commercial industry of accompanying products such as films, toys, Internet content, and clothing. The network has been lauded by many in the industry and in academia for its representations of strong, independent girls, in such shows as Clarissa Explains It All and As Told by Ginger. Through such shows, Nickelodeon acts as a conduit for girl-power culture. Moreover, by stepping into the arena of media production, Nickelodeon facilitates girls' production of their own culture. Banet-Weiser also points out, however, that, along with the production of girl power, Nickelodeon “produces its own kind of commodity feminism through its original programming” as it encourages consumption of signifiers of girl-power identity. Hence, animated programs such as The Powerpuff Girls and Justice League occupy a problematic space between empowering and exploiting young viewers, as do many of the television cartoon lineups that feature entertainment content encoded with gender norms and promotion of brand loyalty.

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