"And a Hollywood movie that's rated for older viewers, PG-13 or R, has a whole line of toys and products marketed to children 3, 4, and 5 years old."
— Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood
"Sure to please the toddler you brought with you to the PG-13 movie!"
"Return to the unforgiving terrain of the Dark Souls series as Red Knight and take down a Lord of Cinder! The Age of Fire is upon us and the Red Knight is our only hope!"
— Funko Pop!, on Red Knight
"The first sign a movie monster has that his boo-power is waning is when he starts getting marketed to children. This only took six months for the Alien [from Alien]. Within that time period, word of mouth had spread from naughty kids who snuck into the drive-ins. It was all over the schoolyard — he comes outta a guy's stomach! That's even cooler than smoking!
Yeah, it was an R-rated film, but scruples be blasted, there was cash to be made. The biggest mistake here is that until this point, all marketing in regards to this creature had been to avoid showing it, and for good reason. Here he is in full-frontal view now, tail and all, just in time for Christmas. Once you see him for more than a few seconds, and in good lighting, he doesn't look so bad. He looks kinda cool and profitable, actually. Darn!
A promotional flyer given out to those who might potentially invest in Alien devoted a paragraph to the figure, proving it was in production before the film was even out. They mention "kids" specifically as a target. Couldn't do this today..."
Yeah, it was an R-rated film, but scruples be blasted, there was cash to be made. The biggest mistake here is that until this point, all marketing in regards to this creature had been to avoid showing it, and for good reason. Here he is in full-frontal view now, tail and all, just in time for Christmas. Once you see him for more than a few seconds, and in good lighting, he doesn't look so bad. He looks kinda cool and profitable, actually. Darn!
A promotional flyer given out to those who might potentially invest in Alien devoted a paragraph to the figure, proving it was in production before the film was even out. They mention "kids" specifically as a target. Couldn't do this today..."
Sunderland wasn't the only skeptic pushing back against the idea, either. Recently, EA CFO Blake Jorgensen said there was some debate about whether or not Battlefield 1 could appeal because, and I quote, "we were worried that many of the younger consumers out there didn't know that there was a World War 2 or Vietnam"; basically, EA thought kids were thick and uneducated and didn't know about history as recent as Vietnam, so would have absolutely no concept of what World War I was.
I mean, the logic being employed here is baffling for a number of reasons. First of all, if EA's idea of children are too uninformed to know massive historical events, why would they care any more about the current conflicts portrayed in Battlefield's previous installments?
Even if they didn't know or care about the setting, what would it matter? I doubt many of them are playing any shooter for the history or narrative setting; they're just there to kill shit, and they're none too fussed about where they're doing it.
Third, and perhaps most damningly, why exactly is EA concerned about what children think of their M-rated game series? Did Electronic Arts just admit it targets children with games that the ESRB have rated for adults? Naughty, naughty fuckers.
I mean, the logic being employed here is baffling for a number of reasons. First of all, if EA's idea of children are too uninformed to know massive historical events, why would they care any more about the current conflicts portrayed in Battlefield's previous installments?
Even if they didn't know or care about the setting, what would it matter? I doubt many of them are playing any shooter for the history or narrative setting; they're just there to kill shit, and they're none too fussed about where they're doing it.
Third, and perhaps most damningly, why exactly is EA concerned about what children think of their M-rated game series? Did Electronic Arts just admit it targets children with games that the ESRB have rated for adults? Naughty, naughty fuckers.
Kirito: (Reading the Game Case) "Choose from one of 9 Faerie races and learn valuable life lessons like, Sharing, Table Manners, and Aerial Combat Supremacy? In the skies of Marshmallow Island, children will make lifelong friends with fellow faeries, or lay them to waste with the game's intricate spellcraft system... Also colouring..." Who is this for?
Tiffany: My guess would be the cast of Lord of the Flies, but I doubt that's a big enough market. Lucky for them once people actually tried the damn thing, they realized that the Flight System was pretty kickass, and it just exploded online.
Kirito: Wait! You can FLY in this game? Why wouldn't they lead with that?! THAT SOUNDS AMAZING!
Tiffany: My guess would be the cast of Lord of the Flies, but I doubt that's a big enough market. Lucky for them once people actually tried the damn thing, they realized that the Flight System was pretty kickass, and it just exploded online.
Kirito: Wait! You can FLY in this game? Why wouldn't they lead with that?! THAT SOUNDS AMAZING!
— Tiffany and Kirito talking about ALfheim Online, Sword Art Online Abridged
We're deeply sorry for the inappropriate artwork that we used for Mignonnes/Cuties. It was not OK, nor was it representative of this French film which won an award at Sundance. We’ve now updated the pictures and description.
"No. There is simply no thematic or conceptual reason to use that scene. Start with the fact that the video was posted on March 10th, and depending on which direction you’re going, that’s either 290 days before, or 75 days after Christmas. Also, why would either of these people care about the stimulus bill? They live in London! And who are they even meant to represent in regards to it? Are we supposed to be Keira Knightley? Is this guy Nancy Pelosi? And if so, who is the husband in the other room we’re supposed to be hiding this interaction from? I mean, yeah, I’m pretty confident the elected official hounding a staffer is Andrew Cuomo, but other than that, nothing makes sense here."
— John Oliver, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, on an ad promoting the Democratic Party's Covid-19 stimulus bill which invokes the "cue cards" scene from Love Actually
As a communist it must really hurt
That your face has been cheapened, weakened, besmirched
Being plastered on posters, coasters, and shirts
Making capitalists rich off of you on merch
That your face has been cheapened, weakened, besmirched
Being plastered on posters, coasters, and shirts
Making capitalists rich off of you on merch
so for some reason hershey's thinks that golden apples would be great to sell as valentine's candy
—This Tumblr post
Tumblr postIt goes back a long way, but in the Eighties there was a small trend of releasing ultraviolent movies which had a lot of kid-oriented merchandising. Typically, The Terminator was rated-R during its 1984 release, i.e. "forbidden to audience younger than 16", but in stores we could find a whole bunch of Terminator-themed toys, or even videogames. Which is weird, because they're supposed to be toys or games made for children, but based on a movie they're not supposed to have watched. An other well-known franchise which saw the same phenomenon is RoboCop, a cult movie from Paul Verhoeven released in 1987 which tells the adventures of Murphy, former cop murdered then brought back to life as RoboCop, a cyborg policeman. The movie is ultraviolent, with blood galore, murders, rape attempts, people who melt in acid then are run over with cars... Ad yet, at the time, "here's your RoboCop toy, your videogame, your cartoon, your satchel, your lunchbox, and I hope you'll like it despite not having watched it, because of course you didn't watch it, that would be irresponsible."
—Joueur du Grenier, introduction of the episode reviewing RoboCop videogames adaptations
