Posted on 10/24/2009 6:33:04 AM PDT by My Favorite Headache
Disney's Sorry It Couldn't Make Your Kid Smarter
Blame Disney for your kid's poor test scores.
The giant entertainment conglomerate Friday said it will offer refunds on its "Baby Einstein" serious of videos, conceding in a lawsuit that the video exercises didn't increase infants' intelligence despite claims it would.
Lawyers threatened Disney last year that it would sue unless Disney offered a full refund -- $15.99 per video -- to customers who wished to cash in on their "Baby Einstein" stash, the New York Times reported Friday.
Customers can get a discount coupon, exchange the video for a different title, or get the cash back if they redeem the refund until March 10.
"Baby Einstein" owns about 90 percent of the baby media market and its products in about $200 million in profits per year, according to the Times. About one-third of all American babies had at least one video from the chain.
Disney removed the label "educational" from the videos' marketing in 2006, giving in to public interest groups who appealed the Federal Trade Commission about the lack of results from the videos.
Disney's lawyers wouldn't dish about the decision.
And, yes, that typo is in the article at the link!
How about buyer beware?
Don’t consumers have any responsibility anymore?
I know, I just saw that! Proofreading please!
The only thing Einstein about these things is that it encouraged parents to treat their children like science experiments. You love and accept your kids unconditionally and celebrate their unique gifts. This played up to yuppies who were insecure/competitive about their progeny and how they would measure up to their friends’ children.
Kids don’t need tv at that age anyway.
Why not read to them and take the TV out of the house instead? Baby Einstein always seemed absurd to me too—and like a giant enabler of lazy parents.
“Don’t consumers have any responsibility anymore?”
Of course, but if a company “promises” it’s product will do something and it doesn’t that company has a responsibility as well. It’s a two way street.
What classical music will do is be PLEASING to the child.
Rap and other unnatural beats is not good for your brain.
Full Disclosure: John Dalton (early chemisty) learned to read Ancient Greek at the age of 3. No Disney required.
Cheers!
Proofreading is of no avail when literacy (or the lack thereof) is the problem.
How about buyer beware?
Don’t consumers have any responsibility anymore?
WHAT?
INDIVIDUAL RESPONISBILTY?
WHAT COUNTRY ARE YOU FROM?
LOL!
Stupid people will buy this to make their kids SMARTER than they are.
We did buy five of them, years ago. We bought them to introduce CLASSICAL MUSIC and it was SOOTHING - NOT to make them “smart”.
I think the DVD’s are nice and calming, and my 5 year old daughter still likes watching Baby Bach when she’s sick. During one of Bush’s state of the union speeches, the woman who started this company was highlighted as a success story. I can’t believe people thought showing these to their kids would up their IQ’s.
They made guarantees. Once you assure results it’s a whole new ball game.
Imagine, your kids will be able to interact with ILLEGAL kids from Mexico! WOW!!!
Parents, please turn off the T.V.. Interact directly with them as INDIVIDUALS. LOVE YOUR KIDS. YOU spend time with them. The years go so fast! Yes, there are days you go crazy but later, you will savor the memories of the better days. Parents, PLEASE, raise your own kids. Don't have Dora raise them. Don't let Dora be your baby sitter or Baby Einstein. Kids need YOU! They crave YOUR attention. Build that BOND with your own kids.
I was given a set of these when my daughter was born a few years back. I avoided them with my son. I found them to be seriously boring and served no purpose other than putting her to sleep quickly. No educational value at all. To me, the only purpose it served for parents was for them to go take a shower for 20 mins and keep the child kinda occupied for a bit.
Did you ever see the “So Smart” series?
It was before Baby Einstein with the same idea, classical music, lots of shapes and primary colors.
My daughter liked them but my Sixteen year old niece was mesmerized by them. I think the Yuppies liked them for the same reason she did. Anything was good when you were stoned.
We got the Baby Can Read series that you see the info-mercial’s on television for. Let me tell you...the results from those discs, books, and cards are nothing short of astounding. INCREDIBLE would still be an underestimation for them. If anyone is looking for a great educational gift for their kids...Baby Can Read. Amazing.
Those genetics are stubborn things, aren’t they?
See, that’s the problem right there. They were marketed as educational for the longest time. When all is said and done in the end you could accomplish the same thing with a dvd from Mannheim Steamroller or some Windham Hill collection.
How Skinnerian.
I let my daughter watch Dora, Diego, Jack’s Big Music Show, Wow Wow Wubbzy, Blues Clues, Wonder Pets, and Yo Gabba Gabba. The main reason I let her watch those shows is they all involve problem solving, manners, and music. The rest of the junk that is out there can go take a hike. She is read to throughout the day, goes to the parks, the play zone places to blow off steam, helps in the kitchen with the little things, colors, draws, uses her learning toys, and we take her to a local field where she runs and runs and runs with her big soccer ball which she loves more than 90% of the garbage pushed on toy shelves. A ball... a simple ball always wins.
LMAO
Another one:
“”Baby Einstein” owns about 90 percent of the baby media market and its products [BRING] in about $200 million in profits per year, according to the Times.”
But what else would you expect with kid slang thrown in?
“Disney’s lawyers wouldn’t dish about the decision.”
Obviously a “Baby Einstein” graduate.
However, their “Baby GAYstein” dvds are doing quite well.
I’m watching one with my daughter right now. If she’s going to watch anything at all, Baby Einstein is it. Cute, happy, fun material she enjoys.
And yes we do a great deal more with her. And no TV per se in our home, only videos chosen as deliberate activities.
Too bad the series is destroyed because of idiot litigous parents.
>>INCREDIBLE would still be an underestimation for them. <<
Maybe someone can send a set to the school board of Detroit City Schools for their High Schoolers.
Call me a snob but I didn't let her waste her time on that junk. We preferred direct interaction with her and direct interaction with other kids through soccer etc. as well as doing workbooks. Too many times these kinds of shows do not match our values or beliefs. They slip stuff in that we don't approve of. Sesame Street was notorious for that.
Email to editor accompanying the story:
Yule be reel glad two no eye ran this story threw my pea sea spell checker bee four eye scent it two bee published. It plane lee marks four my revue awl the miss steaks aye can knot see. It freeze up lodes of thyme. Sew much better than bee fore wee rote with checkers!
Sure, I make occasional errors in my posts -- a mixed metaphor here, a spelling error there -- but I do pretty good well for an 18 month old kid.
That's what I was thinking.
Polishing can only add as much luster as the item being polished will render. Sterling silver shines up real nice; turds, not so much.
Amen
I looked for the source for your post because I was sure it was the Onion. So many stupid parents out there. It’s really sad.
The best way to make your kid smarter is to interact with him, talk to him, and put him in problem-solving situations. Sticking him in front of a video is counterproductive. Daycare and TV are the enemies of brain development.
LOL, are you series?
it’s worked wonders for me too—we weren’t under the impression that our son was going to be a genius from watching them...we just like that it holds his attention and he enjoys them...
Unintended irony alert!
And, voila! A new language is born!
Well, I can tell you our wee one got Baby Einstein as a newborn, and we found it quite helpful in calming them and giving them interest in music and the visual arts.
Of course, like anything else it wasn’t sufficient to make them better at the arts: parental involvement and other tools were needed.
Our child is very musically gifted—not necessarily a prodigy, but talented above their peers. And Baby Einstein was part (not the whole) of the picture.
Disney is doing what they’re doing for whatever reasons they choose.
My story is true.
Music lessons such as piano and voice do make small increases in IQ in children - that much has been documented. Imho, teaching your child to read at a young age is helpful as well including having them read aloud to you every day.
http://www.forbes.com/2004/07/15/cx_0715health.html
The ROI for Disney should be pretty good.
They got parents to plop their kids in front of a TV and the kids conditioned to like it.
Refunding the original purchase price will be made up by selling more videos to the kids and parents down the road.
Original NYTimes article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/24/education/24baby.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss
My daughter and son-in-law refer to it as Kiddie Crack. The other gramma swears by the stuff.
Any kid with parenta who think for one nano-second that a dvd program is going to make him/her more intelligent doesn’t stand a CHANCE.
Kids can learn from dvd’s, and they may lead to an interest in learning, but any notion that they might increase his/her IQ is just nuts.
I remember when my daughter used to watch this DVD.
If the box fits... :)
I heard this on Fox and Friends this morning. The female commentator, when asked if she was going to get the refund said something along the lines of “I knew it would not make my baby smarter, but it allowed me to be able to take a shower. I can’t in good conscience ask for a refund.” I laughed, remembering looking for anything that would help me be able to take a shower.
LMAO!
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