Thursday June 03, 2004

Meter the Little Children

The Nielsen TV Research Activity Book seems innocuous enough at first — just a fun coloring book put together by Nielsen Media Research for the edification of children who live in the company’s 5,000 metered homes, and perhaps a remedial tool for explaining the television ratings system to drunken media buyers. But with debate heating up over the effects of advertising on children, some may cast a dim eye on this playful, Joe Camelish effort to indoctrinate manipulate enslave body-snatch teach the nation’s children how to be good consumers and give up the demographic goods. Click to the next page to see some of the fun activities Nielsen has cooked up for the kiddies. Then think about how much you would have liked to have been in that meeting.