Anytime Playdate: Inside the Preschool Entertainment Boom, or, How Television Became My Baby's Best Friend [Hardcover]

Dade Hayes (Author)

Book Description

In this eye-opening book, the first to investigate the explosion of the multibillion-dollar preschool entertainment business and its effects on families, Dade Hayes -- an entertainment expert, author, and concerned father -- lifts the veil on the closely guarded process of marketing to the ultra-young and their parents.

Like many parents, Dade Hayes grabbed "me time" by plopping his daughter in front of the TV, relaxing while Margot delighted in the sights and sounds of Barney and the Teletubbies. But when Margot got hooked, screaming whenever the TV was turned off, Hayes set out to explore the vast universe of this industry in which preschoolers devour $21 billion worth of entertainment.

Going behind the scenes to talk with executives, writers, and marketers who see the value of educational TV, Hayes finds compelling research that watching TV may raise IQs and increase vocabularies. On the other side, he brings in the voices of pediatricians and child psychologists who warn against "babysitter TV" and ask whether "TV trance" is healthy -- in spite of the relaxation that the lull affords exhausted parents -- as recent studies link early television viewing with obesity, attention and cognitive problems, and violence.

Along the way, Hayes narrates the fascinating evolution of Nickelodeon's bilingual preschool gamble, Ni Hao, Kai-lan, from an art student's Internet doodles to its final product: an educationally fortified, Dora-inflected, test audience-approved television show. At the show's debut, jittery experts hold their breath as the tweaked and researched Kai-lan faces Mr. Potato Head in the battle for a three-year-old's attention.

Anytime Playdate reveals the marketing science of capturing a toddler's attention, examining whether Baby Einstein and its ilk will make babies smarter, or if, conversely, television makes babies passive and uncritical, their imaginations colonized by marketing schemes before they even speak. It tells us why the raucous Dora the Explorer has usurped Blues Clues for preschool primacy, why the Brit hit In the Night Garden won't follow Teletubbies into American tot stardom, and why the comparatively quiet and wholesome Sesame Street has reigned for decades. Hayes vividly portrays the educators, psychologists, executives, parents, and, lest we forget, kids who have shaped the history of children's television, uncovering the tensions between the many personalities, the creative foment that combines story, music, and message in this medium to produce today's almost dizzying array of products and choices.

In the end, Hayes gives readers a provocative but balanced portrait of an age in technological transition, and shows that what's at stake in the "Rattle Battle" is nothing less than the character of the next generation.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

After introducing his infant daughter to TV, Variety editor and author Hayes (Open Wide: How Hollywood Box Office Became a National Obsession) begins to wonder how the $21-billion preschool market—TV shows, DVDs, CDs and tie-in toys–works behind the scenes. He sets out to question the experts, including honchos at Nickelodeon and CTW, as well as entrepreneurs such as Julie Clark, whose brainchild was Baby Einstein. Hayes gives a nod to the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation of no screen time for children under two, but also notes that only 6% of parents are aware of it. He learns, too, that there has been no government research to study preschool media use. Raised on Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street in a pro-TV family (his father worked in the biz), Hayes doggedly follows the paths of such heavy hitters as Dora the Explorer and Blues Clues, dissecting their appeal and pondering the merits of TV for the very young even while continuing to let his daughter tune in. While one pundit notes, The content on television... can open windows and widen horizons for children who otherwise don't have those experiences, the effect is eerily chilling when Hayes's newborn son tilts his head toward the screen. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"This is a great tale of big business and tiny consumers. Now I know what goes into creating a half hour of distraction for my kids -- and it's fascinating and frankly a bit terrifying." -- A. J. Jacobs, author of The Know-It-All and The Year of Living Biblically

"In this snappily written account of television and new media's impact, Dade Hayes shows why our electronic babysitters have more sway than most teachers. Hayes takes readers inside the production factories that craft the programs and inside the economic forces that shape what our children see. Whether you're a parent of young children or a civilian, you want to read this thought-provoking book." -- Ken Auletta, author of Three Blind Mice: How the TV Networks Lost Their Way and Backstory: Inside the Business of News

"Anytime Playdate is an effervescent tour of America's new infant media empire. Dade Hayes weighs the pros and cons of being raised on video in a helpful, sprightly, and comprehensive fashion, combining a parent's concern with a skilled business reporter's acumen." -- Alissa Quart, author of Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers and Hothouse Kids: The Dilemma of the Gifted Child

"With both the objective eye of a first-class journalist and the subjective eye of a new father, Hayes takes you behind the scenes of an industry that each year creeps closer to creating programming for our children in utero." -- Allison Burnett, author of Christopher and The House Beautiful

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Free Press; 1 edition (May 6, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416546839
• ISBN-13: 978-1416546832
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,916,783 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting But Flawed Book On Infant TV Viewing, December 9, 2008

By 

Mediaman "TVviewer" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Anytime Playdate: Inside the Preschool Entertainment Boom, or, How Television Became My Baby's Best Friend (Hardcover)

The idea of a media reporter looking into the business of creating TV shows for infants is fine--but this wishy-washy book draws few solid conclusions and the author uncovers his own lack of control over the tube.

The author was given access to some Nick Jr. show producers and the Baby Einstein creator. He observes them, interviews them, lets them speak for themselves and never really challenges them. Some of what he learns is interesting--such as the fact that producers of a show for kids under 2 say that children under 2 shouldn't be watching TV! Or that the creator of Baby Einstein did virtually no educational research before starting her supposedly educational product.

What comes through loud and clear is that TV shows and DVDs for kids ages zero to two are BIG BUSINESS and people who create these shows are merely making a product. After they create their idea they later worry about scrambling to find an educational basis for the show. And in many cases they have to stretch the truth in order to come up with any type of research that producers can use to claim the show is educational.

So that aspect of the book is good to read--but the author never takes the next step to report on the various studies that reveal the dangers involved in allowing small children to watch TV. He also misses a huge part of the market by narrowly focusing on only a couple of shows and totally skips Disney and most public TV programming for kids. His historical overview of kids TV is also very incomplete.

It's like the Wikipedia version of the subject, not properly researched nor completely objective.

The worst part is the author interjecting his own family stories--throughout the book he talks about allowing his newborn girl to watch TV, where she quickly gets addicted to whatever show he presents to her, she screams to be allowed to keep watching and he gives in. The sad end of the book is not a self-admission by the author that he should be a better parent and say "no" to the kid, but instead is the author allowing his second child to watch as a newborn.

Obviously the writer learned nothing from writing this because he chose his subjects narrowly and he believed what they told him instead of finding people who conduct valid studies to show the damages TV can do. Yes, he does talk to one doctor who used to work in the film industry, one who tells parents to take control of the TV. But that message doesn't stick with the author, who ends up using the book to do away with his own guilt for allowing his newborn children to watch TV.