A kids brochure about the risks of watching too much TV in Romania...
Under Romania’s harsh Communist regime citizens would only be allowed two hours of TV programmes a day – and most of that time would be taken up by endless speeches of the dictator.
Now that Romania is part of the EU and its economy is booming, the TV viewing situation has transformed: not only does virtually every household have a TV but many children have sets in their rooms, the cable networks have penetrated to the humblest village and the choice of programmes is duzzying. In other words, Romania has become like any other EU Member State (in this regard at least).
One of the side-effects of this rapid increase of TV provision is that children spend more and more time in front of the box, particularly since most parents really struggle to earn enough in this low-wage economy and the TV is a convenient way to keep the little ones occupied.
The National Audiovisual Council of Romania – whom Internews Europe advises – is concerned about the impact of TV on children. With the help of the project ’’Enhancement and development of the professional expertise of the Romanian audiovisual sector" the Council commissioned a series of sociological studies and a public awareness campaign. A series of TV and radio spots were produced and an outdoor poster campaign has just started. With over 2000 screenings on Romanian TV stations, the TV spots “Don’t Let Your Child be Educated by TV” have had more exposure than almost any other “social campaign” of its kind in Romania.
The latest production in the Council’s campaign is a 16 page brochure which is aimed at primary school children. The other campaign material is aimed at parents, with the message “don’t let your child be educated by TV”, and the concept is to shock the parents into realising that abandoning their children in front of the TV can have serious consequences.
While the TV and radio ads have violent and sexual imagery (the danger of too much TV viewing) the kids brochure could take a completely different approach because it was aimed at children aged 8 to 10 – the age group considered most open to advice about the risks of too much TV.
When the target age group was agreed upon it became obvious that the best approach would be an illustrated story. Internews were very fortunate to have found an excellent children’s writer – Victoria Patrascu — as well as an enthusiastic graphic designer cum illustrator (and former kindergarten teacher) with the nickname of “Soso”.
The title of the brochure is “The taming of the TV” and the story is about a middle class boy called Matei whose life revolves around watching TV. He doesn’t have any friends, he doesn’t play outside and his life revolves around the box.
Realising the problem, his parents decide to confiscate his TV set and he has one last night with his programmes. But then he is sucked up into the inner world of the TV (called “Mondomedia”) and taken on a tour by Philo Farnsworth, the inventor of television. He sees a dinosaur, a scene from an action film and is given the option of remaining forever inside the TV. He chooses to go home (in a rocket) and then decides for himself that he should go outside and play football, rather than switch on the set.
Although the story is aimed at primary school children, the overall package is aimed at teachers – as it is they who will deliver this material in class. In order to communicate with teachers without compromising the story was challenging and we came up with the some interesting solutions.
Each brochure was packaged inside a presentation folder with the simple title “Children and the TV”, and a poster was inserted. “Teacher’s Notes” were included in the brochure itself and one of the most interesting suggestions is to invite local TV producers and policemen to come and speak to the kids about violence on the TV. We also approached the Ministry of Education in order get a letter of introduction explaining the purpose of this material; a copy of this letter was inserted into each folder.
A total of 50,000 copies was printed and these were sent to “Educational Inspectorates” in each of Romania’s 42 counties. Although this is not enough to reach every single schoolchild, hopefully at least one copy will get to every primary school.
The brochure was launched in December 2007and several newspapers wrote about the brochure and it even made the TV news; the reporter would flick through the pages and the camera would get the images in motion. PDF copies will be circulated and it is hoped that this material will remain on the shelves of the school libary for years to come.
Personally, I reacted to all this by getting rid of our TV set completely. I have two children (5 and 8 years old) and I was getting sick by their growing dependence on cartoons. This campaign gave me the little extra boost that I needed to banish the TV from our lives. And the result is great: the kids read and play more and when we want to see a film we use our DVD player, projector and screen.
Drafted by Rupert Wolfe Murray
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The project is funded by the European Commission - PHARE programme
