Commercial Alert
Mike McKean Sr
Commercial
Alert September 30, 1999
-- Sixty psychologists and psychiatrists sent a
letter today to Dr.
Richard Suinn, President of the American Psychological
Association,
urging the Association to restrict the participation of
psychologists in
advertising or marketing to children. The letter
follows.
September 30, 1999
Richard Suinn, PhD
President
American
Psychological Association
Psychology Department
Colorado State
University
Fort Collins, CO 80523
RE: The Use of Psychology to Exploit and
Influence Children for
Commercial Purposes
Dear Dr. Suinn:
The
American Psychological Association (APA) was founded to advance
the
understanding of the human psyche in order to promote health. The
APA's
founding documents articulate this mission in inspiring detail.
The
organization is to "work to mitigate the causes of human suffering;"
it
seeks to "improve the condition of both the individual and society,"
and
to "help the public in developing informed judgments."
That is a high
calling. The APA's healing and helping mission is
accentuated by what the
organization and its members are not supposed to
do -- namely "exploit or
mislead other people."
We are writing today about the latter prohibition.
We are concerned
that members of the APA are ignoring it, for monetary gain.
They are
not using their knowledge to mitigate the causes of human
suffering.
They are using it instead to promote and assist the
commercial
exploitation and manipulation of children. As individuals, that is
their
right, of course. But as a profession dedicated to human
welfare,
psychologists have a responsibility to the public. The APA should
not
condone such behavior among its members, nor should psychologists
look
the other way.
Regrettably, a large gap has arisen between APA's
mission and the drift
of the profession into helping corporations influence
children for the
purpose of selling products to them. Advertising and
marketing firms
have long used the insights and research methods of
psychology in order
to sell products, of course. But today these practices
are reaching
epidemic levels, and with a complicity on the part of the
psychological
profession that exceeds that of the past. The result is an
enormous
advertising and marketing onslaught that comprises, arguably,
the
largest single psychological project ever undertaken. Yet, this
great
undertaking remains largely ignored by the APA.
The sale of
psychological expertise to advertisers to manipulate
children for monetary
gain goes without comment let alone sanction. The
profession does very
little to protect innocent children -- the people
it is supposed to help --
from the psychological cajoling and assaults
that it itself helps to create.
This behavior is not even mentioned in
the APA's "Ethical Principles of
Psychologists And Code of Conduct"
("Ethics Code").
Several countries and
provinces have laws to protect children from the
attempts of adults to
influence them in this way. For example, Sweden
and Norway prohibit
television advertising directly targeting children
below twelve years of age.
Greece bans television advertising of toys
to children between 7:00 a.m. and
10:00 p.m. Quebec prohibits
television advertising directed at children
below the age of thirteen.
However, in the United States, children have no
such protections, nor
any protection against the use of psychological
insights and expertise
to manipulate or influence them.
If the APA stands
for anything, and if it takes its own mission
seriously, it ought to expose
and challenge this abuse of psychological
knowledge. It must not continue to
tolerate by silence such abuse by
its own members.
Specifically, we urge
the APA to:
1. Issue a formal public statement denouncing the use of
psychological
techniques to assist corporate marketing and advertising to
children;
and,
2. Amend the APA's Ethics Code to establish limits for
psychologists
regarding the use of psychological knowledge or techniques to
observe,
study, manipulate, harm, exploit, mislead, trick or deceive children
for
commercial purposes; and,
3. Launch an ongoing campaign to probe,
review and confront the use of
psychological research in advertising and
marketing to children. The
campaign would include: (a) ongoing investigation
of the use of the
tools of psychology in advertising, marketing and market
research
targeted at children; (b) publication and ethical evaluation of
these
findings; and, (c) the promotion of strategies to protect
children
against commercial manipulation and exploitation by psychologists
and
those who use the tools of psychology.
The use of psychological
insight and methodology to bypass parents and
influence the behavior and
desires of children is a crisis for the
profession of psychology. But it
also presents a chance for the
profession to affirm its high public calling.
The American public is
hungry for acts of principle and courage on the part
of the professions,
and we urge the APA to take this
step.
Sincerely,
Samella Abdullah, PhD
Neil Altman, PhD
Anita Barrows,
PhD, Associate Faculty, Wright Institute, Berkeley, CA
Sharon A. Baker, MSPH,
PhD, Research Scientist, University of Washington
Jack Block, PhD, Professor
Emeritus, Psychology Department, U.C.
Berkeley
Lane Conn, PhD, Center for
Psychological and Social Change, Harvard
Medical School
Sarah Conn, PhD,
Instructor in Psychology, Harvard Medical School
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi,
PhD, Prof. of Psychology, Peter Drucker School
of Management, Claremont Grad.
Univ.; author of Flow
Victor Daniels, PhD, Professor, Psychology Department,
Sonoma State
University
Jeanette Diaz-Veizades, PhD, Faculty, Saybrook
Institute and Research
Center, San Francisco
Samantha Dowdall, PhD,
Transpersonal Counseling Center, Institute for
Transpersonal Psychology, Palo
Alto, CA
Saul Eisen, PhD, Professor, Psychology Department, Sonoma
State
University
Greg Fiest, PhD, Associate Professor, Psychology
Department, College of
William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA
Diane Ehrenseft,
PhD, Faculty, Wright Institute
Joseph Friedman, PhD
James Gabarino, PhD,
Professor of Human Development, Cornell University;
author of Lost
Boys
Chellis Glendinning, PhD, author of When Technology Wounds
Mary Gomes,
PhD, Associate Professor, Psychology Department, Sonoma
State
University
Leslie Gray, PhD, Director, Woodfish Institute
Steve Handwerker,
PhD
Jane M. Healy, PhD, educational psychologist; author of Failure
to
Connect
Susan Hillier, PhD, Associate Professor, Psychology Department,
Sonoma
State University
Larry Jaffe, PhD
Zonya Johnson, PhD, Faculty,
Saybrook Institute and Research Center, San
Francisco
Allen D. Kanner, PhD,
Associate Faculty, Wright Institute
Ellyn Kaschak, PhD, Professor, San Jose
State University, author of
Engendered Lives
Timothy J. Kasser, PhD,
Assistant Professor of Psychology, Knox College
Robert E. Kay, MD,
psychiatrist
Terry Kupers, MD, Faculty, Wright Institute
Lynne Layton, PhD,
PhD, Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychology,
Harvard Medical
School
Larry M. Leitner, PhD
Lenny Levis, PhD, Director, West Coast
Children's Center, Kensington, CA
Susan Linn, EdD, Associate Director, Media
Center, Judge Baker
Children's Ctr.; Instructor in Psychiatry, Harvard
Medical School
Richard Lichtman, PhD, Core Faculty, Wright Institute,
Berkeley, CA
Judith Liebow, PhD, Director of Training, Children's Hospital,
Oakland,
CA
Emily Loeb, PhD, Psychotherapy Institute, Berkeley, CA
David
Lukoff, PhD, Faculty, Saybrook Institute and Research Center,
San
Francisco
Ralph Metzner, PhD, Professor, California Institute of
Integral Studies
Kate Moody, Director, EdD, Dyslexia Program at University of
Texas
Medical Branch, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Neurology
Allison C.
Morrill, JD, PhD, Research Scientist, New England Research
Institutes
Diane
M. Morrison, PhD, Research Professor, Center for Policy and
Practice
Research, University of Washington
Magdalena R. Naylor, MD, PhD, Associate
Professor of Psychiatry,
University of Vermont; co-author of The Search For
Meaning
Gilbert Newman, PhD, Director of Field Placement, Wright
Institute
Margaret Pavel, PhD, Instructor, New College of San Francisco
Marc
Pillisuk, PhD, Professor Emeritus, U.C. Davis; Faculty, Saybrook
Institute
and Research Center
Susan Raeburn, PhD
Erika Rosenberg, PhD, Assistant
Professor, College of William and Mary,
Williamsburg, VA
Richard Ryan, PhD,
Professor of Clinical & Social Psychology, University
of Rochester
Fran
Segal, PhD
Marilyn Senf, PhD, Berkeley Mental Health Adult Services
Laura
Sewell, PhD, Faculty, Prescott College, AZ
Joseph S. Silverman, MD
Robert
Slegal, PhD, Professor, Psychology Department, Sonoma State
University
Karen
Spengenberg, PhD, Clinical Neuropsychologist, Northeast
Rehabilitation
Center, Salem, NH
Valerie Stone, PhD, Assistant Professor, Psychology
Department,
University of Denver
Alan Swope, PhD, Associate Professor,
California School of Professional
Psychology Veronique Thompson, PhD,
Institute Faculty, Wright Institute
Chera Van Berg, PhD, Palo Alto, CA
Art
Warmath, PhD, Professor, Psychology Department, Sonoma
State
University
David Watt, PhD, Berkeley, CA
cc: Henry Tomes, PhD,
Executive Director for Public Interest Tiffany M.
Field, President, Division
of Developmental Psychology
Beth J. Doll, PhD, President, Division of School
Psychology
Curtis P. Haugtvedt, PhD, President, Society for Consumer
Psychology
Cynthia J. Schellenbach, PhD, President, Division of Child,
Youth, and
Family Services
Susan Holmes McDaniel, PhD, President, Division
of Family Psychology
Frank Farley, PhD, President, Division of Media
Psychology
William E. Pelham, PhD, President Pro Tem, Division of Clinical
Child
Psychology
F. Daniel Armstrong, PhD, President Pro Tem, Society of
Pediatric
Psychology
Thomas H. Ollendick, PhD, President, Society of
Clinical Psychology
Andrea L. Solarz, PhD, President, Society for Community
Research and
Action: Division of Community Psychology
<-------------letter
ends here-------------->
For more information about how psychologists
participate in advertising
and marketing to children,
see
<http://www.essential.org/alert/psychology/apaletfactsheet.html>.
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--------------------------------------------------------------
gba...@toasted_spam.idirect.com
wrote:
>
>Commercial
>Alert September 30, 1999
>
>-- Sixty psychologists and psychiatrists sent a
>letter today to Dr.
>Richard Suinn, President of the American Psychological
>Association,
>urging the Association to restrict the participation of
>psychologists in
>advertising or marketing to children. The letter
>follows.
>
Now stage 2 is to get this same pack of sanctimonious twitbirds to
immediately cease using the media as a means for bombarding _all_ of
us with their unproven bullshit 'mental health' propaganda.
Without this happening, this letter is merely one moe classic example
of the kettle making totally inappropriate references to the pot's
color. These guys give a whole new meaning to the term 'double
standard.'
-------------------------------------------------
<http://webhome.idirect.com/~gbacque/gbacque.html>
Do NOT reply by private e-mail - keep it in the newsgroups!
-------------------------------------------------
veruca
gbacque@toasted_spam.idirect.com wrote:
> On 09 Oct 1999 03:28:38 GMT, mmcke...@aol.com (Mike McKean Sr)
> wrote:
>
> >
> >Commercial
> >Alert September 30, 1999
> >
> >-- Sixty psychologists and psychiatrists sent a
> >letter today to Dr.
> >Richard Suinn, President of the American Psychological
> >Association,
> >urging the Association to restrict the participation of
> >psychologists in
> >advertising or marketing to children. The letter
> >follows.
> >
>
> Now stage 2 is to get this same pack of sanctimonious twitbirds to
> immediately cease using the media as a means for bombarding _all_ of
> us with their unproven bullshit 'mental health' propaganda.
>
> Without this happening, this letter is merely one moe classic example
> of the kettle making totally inappropriate references to the pot's
> color. These guys give a whole new meaning to the term 'double
> standard.'
>
Not to mention the shrinks' desire to keep their current standards of
living. There's gold in them thar kids! (esp. if you can convince their
parents they're &*&%ed up and desperately need treatment for the illness
du jour)
V.
Mike McKean Sr
That's for sure, V.. there's BIG money in drugging kids.
Mike McKean, Sr.
http://www.cchr.org/children/eng/index.htm
http://www.cchr.org/educate/index.htm
http://www.cchr.org/morals/index.htm
http://www.psychinvestigator.com/
gba...@toasted_spam.idirect.com
The.Galacti...@ThePentagon.com (©Anti-Cult® -
www.users.wineasy.se/noname/ ) wrote:
>
>Your real enemy, is the CCHR and the criminal cult of scientology. You'll
>find out that one day, sooner or later.
>
>Sten-Arne
>
Hey man, we've all heard that song before... and around here it has
absolutely zero hit potential. Please change the fucking record.
-------------------------------------------------
<http://webhome.idirect.com/~gbacque/gbacque.html>
Do NOT reply by private e-mail - keep it in the newsgroups!
-------------------------------------------------
Mark W Brehob
> On Sat, 09 Oct 1999 13:32:01 +0200,
> The.Galacti...@ThePentagon.com (©Anti-Cult® -
> www.users.wineasy.se/noname/ ) wrote:
>>
>>Your real enemy, is the CCHR and the criminal cult of scientology. You'll
>>find out that one day, sooner or later.
>>
>>Sten-Arne
>>
> Hey man, we've all heard that song before... and around here it has
> absolutely zero hit potential. Please change the fucking record.
Sure, new record. CCHR is closely tied to the Chruch of Scientology. Fact.
Their founder hated the mental health profession. Fact.
They can be a good resource, but always remember they have an agenda. And
helping you may be less important to them then hurting the mental health
profession.
Look before you buy. www.off-lines.org has information on Scientology from
the negative side. (www.xenu.net is even more negative about Scientology)
www.scientology.org has the positive. And have no doubt, when dealing with
the CCHR you _are_ dealing with the Chruch of Scientology.
luck,
Mark
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.cps.msu.edu/~brehob ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~Mark Brehob: Ultimate Player, Gamer, Computer Geek~~~~~~~~~~