August 4, 2008

QUOTE: "Kids are exposed at younger and younger ages to more and more sexually graphic material. When you show an ad that showcases shortcuts to those things, you're not just selling underwear or T-shirts, you're selling whole ways of being. You show an ad of a girl looking like she's just had sex or about to have sex in rumpled sheets wearing a certain type of underwear, that creates a model of what's OK for a kid. ... I'd just like to say to the creators of these ads, 'Put your 12-year-old girl or boy in front of them and see if you repeat them.' That should be the sanity check." —Liz Perle, editor-in-chief for Common Sense Media, commenting on the racy American Apparel underwear ads that have quickly become iconic [abcnews.com, 7/29/08]

QUOTE: "The rub among adults is, 'Is this good taste?' Given more of a traditional background, one would have to say no. But, then, it doesn't matter anymore. ... All the rules are being broken. The market segment to which [these American Apparel] ads appeal has lost all sense. All morality, all the good taste, all the propriety is gone." —advertising industry executive John Klein [abcnews.com, 7/29/08]

Keira Knightley, the svelte starlet of Atonement and Pirates of the Caribbean fame, refused to have her bust digitally enhanced for promotional photos of her upcoming film, The Duchess. "Keira Knightley is essentially giving young women permission to stand up in their communities and their schools and their families and say, 'Look, this is the way I look, and it is OK,'" said Courtney Martin, author of Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters. [abcnews.com, 7/29/08]

QUOTE: "It would be nice if I could have my daughters listen to their music without me worrying they were getting bad images of themselves." —Barack Obama, responding to the support he's received from rappers such as Ludacris and Jay-Z. A new Ludacris song praising Obama included this controversial lyric: "Hillary hated on you, so that b--ch is irrelevant" ("Politics: Obama Is Here"). Obama's spokesman, Bill Burton, further elaborated on his response: "As Barack Obama has said many, many times in the past, rap lyrics today too often perpetuate misogyny, materialism and degrading images that he doesn't want his daughters or any children exposed to. This [Ludacris] song is not only outrageously offensive to Senator Clinton, Reverend Jackson, Senator McCain and President Bush, it is offensive to all of us who are trying to raise our children with the values we hold dear." [abcnews.com, 7/30/08]

QUOTE: "Pop culture proves that teens are more ready than ever to discuss the subject of sex. We believe that Miley is both influential and relatable to this afflicted set—and is the obvious choice to get the message of safe sex out to teens across America." —LifeStyles Condoms vice president of marketing Carol Carrozza, on why the company asked Miley Cyrus to be its new celebrity spokesperson. Representatives for Cyrus told E! News that Miley never received such an offer, "nor would she consider the offer." [foxnews.com, 7/29/08]

QUOTE: "I think the LifeStyles offer has a lot more to do with the buzz generated by even the proposal of the pairing. LifeStyles gets gratis association with the Hannah Montana brand, with all its increasingly fraught but consistently lucrative connotations. Canny Miley gets to continue her coy, stutter-step march toward sexpot-dom, chastely refusing the condom deal but grabbing some column space that portrays her not just as a cute little kid any longer." —Noreen Malone, contributor to Slate's "The XX Factor" blog [slate.com, 7/31/08]

Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer's fourth book in her white-hot Twilight series (which features a teen girl's obsessive love affair with a vampire), hit bookstores Aug. 2, supported by a massive print run of 3.2 million copies. First-day sales topped 1.3 million. Combined, the Mormon author's books have sold 8 million copies in the United States; a movie adaptation of the first book is scheduled to land in theaters Dec. 12. Meyer's popularity has earned her comparisons to Harry Potter scribe J.K. Rowling. [usatoday.com, 7/30/08-8/4/08 stats]

According to a new poll of 3,000 teens and adults conducted by Integrated Media Measurement Inc., a fifth of all U.S. television viewers are watching prime-time programs online. Of that number, about half are watching the TV programs as they become available, and they "appear to be beginning to use the computer as a substitute for the television set," the survey stated. "This is the first study to show there are a significant amount of people watching prime-time shows online who are not watching some portion of those shows on television," said Amanda Welsh, head of research for IMMI. [Reuters, 7/29/08 stats]

With the overwhelming success of big-screen comic book adaptations of late, studios are more eager than ever to capitalize on moviegoers' appetite for superhero stories: A whopping 42 comic book and superhero movies are currently in production. [usatoday.com, 7/27/08 stats]

These days, however, comic book fans may be looking for something darker than the super-duper, squeaky-clean heroes of yesteryear—a point illustrated by the runaway success of The Dark Knight. Zack Snyder, who directed 300 and is helming next spring's Watchmen (which USA Today dubbed "the ultimate anti-hero film") said, "They asked me to direct a Superman movie, and I said no. He's a tricky one nowadays, isn't he. He's the king daddy of all comic-book heroes, but I'm just not sure how you sell that kind of earnestness to a sophisticated audience anymore." One of Watchmen's stars, actor Jackie Earle Haley, adds, "I don't know how long this will last, but I think comic book movies are doing what a lot of other movies have been afraid to do. Get dark. Make outcasts your heroes. Take a critical look at the state of the world we live in." [usatoday.com, 7/27/08]

QUOTE: "Think about it: When have you last seen a comic book movie about a superhero that got an R rating? The system is self-regulated: it's set up by Hollywood for Hollywood products. So it's in their best interest for films to get PG-13 ratings." —Eddie Schmidt, producer of the 2006 documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated, on The Dark Knight's arguably lenient PG-13 rating. He adds that the MPAA's "standards are not transparent. Sexualized nudity would push a movie to get an R rating. Violence—the more realistic it is, the more bloody, the more carnal, the more likely it is to get an R rating. But you might have instances of violence in [a] PG-13 movie and in an R movie that seem exactly the same. So there's no way of knowing. I would think it's very maddening for a parent." [abcnews.com, 7/28/08]

QUOTE: "PG-13 today is really what R used to be 10 years ago." —Aris T. Christofides, editor of the movie review Web site kids-in-mind.com [abcnews.go.com, 7/28/08]

Miley Cyrus presided over the 10th annual Teen Choice Awards on Aug. 3. Among the movies teens picked as winners this year were The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Step Up 2 the Streets, 27 Dresses, What Happens in Vegas, Juno, I Am Legend, Hancock and Get Smart. Teens' favorite shows on the small screen were Gossip Girl (CW), Heroes (NBC), Hannah Montana (Disney Channel), American Idol (Fox), The Hills (MTV) and The Secret Life of the American Teen (ABC Family). Musicians making the cut were the Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus, Chris Brown, Jordin Sparks and Lil Mama. [AP, 8/08/08]