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2014 Hour of Code: Do Ends Justify Disney Product Placement Means?
theodp writes "The purpose of product placement/product integration/branded entertainment," explains Disney in a job posting, "is to give a brand exposure outside of their traditional media buy." So, one imagines the folks in Disney Marketing must be thrilled that Disney Frozen princesses Anna and Elsa will be featured in the 'signature tutorial' for CSEdWeek's 2014 Hour of Code, which aims to introduce CS to 100 million schoolkids — including a sizable captive audience — in the weeks before Christmas. "Thanks to Disney Interactive," announced Code.org CEO Hadi Partovi, "Code.org's signature tutorial for the 2014 Hour of Code features Disney Infinity versions of Disney's 'Frozen' heroines Anna and Elsa!." Partovi adds, "The girl-power theme of the tutorial is a continuation of our efforts to expand diversity in computer science and broaden female participation in the field, starting with younger students." In the tutorial, reports the LA Times, "students will learn to write code to help Anna and Elsa draw snowflakes and snowmen, and perform magical 'ice craft.' Disney is also donating $100,000 to support Code.org's efforts to bring computer science education to after-school programs nationwide."
This should accomplish it for a substantial portion of the female population...
Next question
I'm doing Calculus homework right now... I can just imagine:
"A conical funnel is pouring delicious CocaCola TM in to glass bottles. If the glass bottles have an available volume of 355ml and the funnel produces 100 bottles of refreshing beverage per hour: what is the minimum conical volume which will meet this rate of production if gravity feeds the liquid through a 1cm internal diameter on the bottle mouth?
Oh yeah, gripe about product placement all over SlashDice.com...
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
It's reprehensible that they leverage this incredibly popular brand to teach girls to code when they could be using it to sell Happy Meals and next year's landfill fodder. Shame, shame!
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
I'm not sure if this is appropriate if it's used in a mandatory class. If it's an elective, it's a gray area. After all, it's a form of advertisement.
On another note, what effect does this have on girls if they realize that the coding material is geared toward a specific gender? I could speculate.
Is it relevant to bring up episode http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girls_Just_Want_to_Have_Sums of The Simpsons?
I'm pretty sure I recognize the name "theodp" as having some connection to Slashdot, so I clicked on the user name, and discovered he's submitted this story four goddamn times:
Are Disney Princesses the Answer to America's Tech-Talent Shortage?
Walt Disney Presents: 'Frozen' Princesses to Star in 2014 Hour of Code
Would She-Ra Have Been a Better Choice for CSEdWeek Than Disney's Anna and Elsa?
2014 Hour of Code: Do Ends Justify Disney Product Placement Means? (this one)
I guess that's how you become a frequent contributor on Slashdot: keep submitting the same crap no one cares about until it finally slips through.
We should never support abusers of copyright...
n/t
Seriously, they are truly an evil company. Everything they do is meant to hook kids into the Disney universe and extract as much money as possible from the kids and their families. Code.org should be ashamed of itself.
"The purpose of product placement/product integration/branded entertainment," explains Disney in a job posting, "is to give a brand exposure outside of their traditional media buy."
Let me translate that in to normal English:
"The purpose of product placement ads is to shove advertising down people's throats until they choke to death on it so we can rifle through the corpse's pockets for loose change." Or, more realistically, "Our normal advertising is so annoying and offensive (because all advertising is, these days) that we have to find other ways to force it on to people because if advertising doesn't actually work, we'll all lose our jobs had have to actually work for a living."
Fuck Disney.
Not a long time ago, I was just a normal internet user that surfed various news sites like Sladshdot, reddit, or wsj.com. I read a story, perhaps clicked onto some links it contained, and I was mostly happy with my life.
Then, one day, I surfed Slashdot. It was one of those days you will remember for the rest of your life. So, as I surfed Sladshdot, the title of a story got my attention. I read the summary. The topic seemed interesting, so I decided to read further. I read:
Read on below for the rest what Bennett has to say.
Usually I don't read first line of a story which contains the user who has submitted it. On that day, I didn't neither. As I've only read that bottom line, I asked myself: who is this misterious Bennett? I decided to click onto the "Read the comments" link to read more of the story that was, as it seems, written by some Bennett. During reading, I was already impressed by the clear and detailed but still concise structure of the text. As I finished reading, I was convinced it was the best story I've ever read on Sladshdot, or any comparable news site. I asked myself: perhaps this misterious Bennett has contributed more frequently than just once?
To find that out, I went to Sladshdot's search bar and searched for "Bennett". I clicked the second entry, and it began with:
Frequent contributor Bennett Haselton writes
I searched for the "Read on" line, and I was happy when I found it. As it seemed, he was a frequent contributor. However the story was on a topic completely unrelated to the topic of my article. Would the other article still be as insightful as the first? And the other stories in the search result? Would they be also by Bennett? Or someone else? I decided first to be happy to have found such an insightful article, and decided to make a photograph of me, before I read the second story.
I still have that photograph of me and I can see the hope and the satisfaction in my eyes, the hope that the other stories are also written by this brilliant author called Bennett, and the satisfaction of having read such an insightful article. As I've read the first couple of stories by Bennett, I couldn't believe what my eyes saw: all the stories were as insightful or even more insightful than the original story I read. I asked myself whether the spectators in the Globe theatre would have felt the same way when they watched a piece by shakespeare: Witnessing history of writing. I realized Bennett is one of histories great writers.
As I've finished reading all contributions by Bennett Haselton on Sladshdot, I went back to the first Bennett story, and read them a second time. I sat three days straight, missing all social events during that span, only reading Bennett's stories, and reading them again and again. During that time my eyes opened to the fact that my whole life, I've known nothing. Bennett's stories explained every aspect of very complicated things in such detail, that I formed something in my mind. First, I couldn't describe it what it was, but years later I know that, for the first time of my life, I formed something called "opinion" on a topic. Previously, I've only adopted opinions from others, but Bennett's stories enable people to make their opinions for themselfes, to form them. With his stories, Bennett gives you the material to form your own opinion on your own. I know you will say that you can form your opinion on your own, and that you don't need Bennett for that. I
disagree with you. What you call opinion, is in reality just ideology you imitate from others. You don't form your opinions, you don't have them.
Every time Bennett writes a new story on Sladshdot, I take a free day and spend it reading the story
Disney, DreamWorks Sued Over Alleged No-Poaching Accord: "Walt Disney Co., DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. and other film industry companies were sued in an antitrust case that may reflect a new wave of litigation applying traditional price-fixing claims to labor markets. Today's lawsuit accusing the California-based companies of colluding to not hire each other's software engineers , digital artists and animators comes as Apple Inc., Google Inc., Intel Corp. and Adobe Systems Inc. are trying to resolve similar claims after failing to win court approval of a proposed $324.5 million settlement with 64,000 of their technical workers."
students will learn to write code to help Anna and Elsa draw snowflakes and snowmen, and perform magical 'ice craft.'
Do you want to draw a snowman? ...
No-not with paper and pen,
Take this keyboard and type in these words,
like all these nerds,
and you will see that then
SYNTAX ERROR
Or how about some 'ice craft'.
We can make things appear on this screen...
Hmm, I guess that's cool.
Elsa: I have colored pencils, paper, and some stencils.
Anna: That sounds like a much better way to draw a snowman, let's do that instead. And, I have some cloth, sticks, and lights to make us actual, physical wands to play with!
Elsa: That's awesome!
Anna: I'm so glad I have you as a sister.
Elsa: You're the best.
The End.
Disney is an evil corporation with evil goals. Look it up. If they are involved in this, the project is suspect.
Would be a much better choice, then.
I can't believe I didn't guess that this was the particular flavor of corporate whoring that Gates and Zuckerberg were up to. Get into the educational pipeline with whatever education issue is hot (it started as just STEM, but then shifted to women in STEM when that started sizzling, if you'll remember). Get some big names to attach their reputations to its success. Then start selling ad space to Disney, who can't get much traction buying ad space inside the schools themselves. I should have guessed, but I didn't. I just thought they were after the data.
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
"The purpose of product placement/product integration/branded entertainment," explains Disney in a job posting, "is to give a brand exposure outside of their traditional media buy."
Everyone who works in ad-tech has some justification for why it's ok.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
They and lego are 2 of the most evil companies in the toy industry.
I can not stand either one and CRINGE every time that one of my kids want something from them.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
<knock, knock>
Would you like to work at Disney?
Oh so many pro-per-ties
Their imagineering can't be beat
And Marvel's neat
Don't forget their great ben-nies
Spielberg sure can tell a story, no arg-u-ment,
But you could work on Pix-ar's team.
Do you want a job at Disney?
Or maybe a sub-si-diary
Dreamworks HR: Go away, Anna. ...
Ok, bye
Disney sues people for putting a picture of Mickey Mouse on the wall of a day care. LEGO, on the other hand, puts out a movie decrying certain media companies' fanwork ban policy.
Yeah, I get it! Girls can freak out and, you know, freeze all the code a few days before release.
OK, fine. I got nothin'. I'll keep my day job ...
Elsa is the perfect programming role model
Have you ever talked to a little girl? Saying that having to Frozen characters involved might interest more little girls is not sexism, it's the most common of sense.
People like you say you want more women in coding but don't want to do anything real to make it happen, at the level it needs to happen - early education.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
There is no slippery slope in product placement for youth education.
1. Entertainment is different from education.
2. Youth are different from adults.
Consider industry-sponsored medical education. Western society accepts this, because speakers must acknowledge their funding sources. This allows the (highly educated) audience to evaluate based on inherent biases of the speaker and the quality of the research.
For an educational program designed for youth, we cannot accept that acknowledgement of funding sources is sufficient. Youth have not developed the capacity to separate general principles from product placement advertisements. Product placement is not acceptable for a youth educational program.
Hadi Partovi should be ashamed.
Where was the outrage over last years Plants and Zombies/ Angry Birds themed hour of code?
Is it the branding bothering people, or that girls are being focused on this time around?
Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
"The girl-power theme of the tutorial is a continuation of our efforts to expand diversity in computer science and broaden female participation in the field, starting with younger students."
How patronizing.
If Disney wants to throw $$ at a meaningful, beneficial event and in return they get to plaster their product placement all over it in ways that don't actually detract from the facts/lesson being delivered - who cares? Hell, I hope it starts a bidding war in which the tutorial characters are eventually covered in ads like an Indy race-driver suit.* The sad consequence would be, of course, the fund swimming in cash. Tragedy!
*I personally believe that someday someone will actually cost-benefit out media advertising and realize it's a 75-year long scam. But that's a post for another day.
The ends DO justify the means, every goddamn day.
-Styopa
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... but not Yori, Quorra or even Vanellope?
Nuf said...
If you go to a party, are you more comfortable to go when some of your friends are going to be there?
Of course! And you are more likely to get involved with whatever is happening at the party.
We already have plenty of things boys are interested in, in programming (driving robot cars, for example)
Lets get some girl action in there.
Elsa's castle could be generated by fractals, for example.
Program a raspberry pi to measure cold temperatures, and then throw shaved ice around like Elsa does.
She is a great super-hero for girls, and I'm so glad she is more popular than her sister (I'd rather my girl didn't get married on her first date either).
I used to work for Disney. It stank and I went and got a job at an oil company just to feel better about myself....
Dialectician. Archology.
Do you wanna code a program~?
In what way is the audience captive? Isn't hour of code totally voluntary?
I imagine the 'Plants and zombies' or 'Angry birds' efforts were gender neutral because, though the theme is masculine ('Angry birds'; aggressors with advanced weapons destroying the homes of defenseless animals), I imagine a lot of women play 'Angry birds'. Of course, girls prefer princesses and babies, so this is designed to entice a narrow demographic. Since there aren't any baby 'GI Joe' dolls in the shops (nor 'GI Jane' dolls, so that's reverse sexism), I imagine boys will be repulsed by the thought of playing with babies. So this marketing ploy will also discourage boys. I predict enrollment will be dismal. How about Disney also offer the 'Cars' movie characters at the event?
Seriously, "Let it Go!"
I foresee a dark future of lonely princesses spinning code in the top of a locked tower, waiting for their Prince Charming to come along and save it.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
I think, rather, that all the Disney management have graduated from the Klaus Barbie school of princesses....
I teach math at an all girls school. I also teach coding, both within my class and in summer camps and a short, optional 3-week class in the winter. Next year, I hope to be teaching a full semester Computer science course. And the answer to this question is a solid YES. The Hour of Code tutorials are amazing, but my girls last summer were only vaguely interested in the plants, zombies, and angry birds of last year. Elsa and Anna will hold their attention more, help them learn the basics, so that when they dive into full-fledged Scratch (and can design whatever they want), they have those skills ready. It is absolutely, 100%, WORTH IT.
Olaf and Svenn would be much better characters.
"Ends justify the means" is usually meant to imply that the means are bad, but potentially excusable.
What exactly is wrong with the "means" here? I hate Disney's copyright practices, but other than that, I can't fault them. They have a dedication to quality which I wish were seen elsewhere.
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All