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Baby Einstein
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Baby Einstein is a line of multimedia products and toys that specializes in interactive activities for children aged 3 months to 3 years old. Subjects such as classical music, art, and poetry are prominently explored. These products are currently made by a division of the Walt Disney Company, marketed under the slogan, "Where Discovery Begins".
While popular with many parents who desire to provide an early boost to their children's cognitive development, products of this sort find little support among experts in the field of early childhood education, who emphasize the crucial role of "hands-on", experiential learning through exploration and manipulation of the child's physical environment.
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Baby Einstein is a line of multimedia products and toys that specializes in interactive activities for children aged 3 months to 3 years old. Subjects such as classical music, art, and poetry are prominently explored. These products are currently made by a division of the Walt Disney Company, marketed under the slogan, "Where Discovery Begins".
While popular with many parents who desire to provide an early boost to their children's cognitive development, products of this sort find little support among experts in the field of early childhood education, who emphasize the crucial role of "hands-on", experiential learning through exploration and manipulation of the child's physical environment.
In August 2007, researchers at the University of Washington published a study which found that the use of Baby Einstein DVDs/videos correlates to smaller vocabularies in children 6 to 18 months old. The Baby Einstein Company and its parent, the Walt Disney Company, have taken issue with the findings of the study. (see below)
History
The Baby Einstein Company was founded in 1997 by Julie Aigner-Clark at her home in suburban Alpharetta, Georgia. Aigner-Clark and her husband, Bill Clark, invested $18,000 of their savings to produce the initial product, a VHS/DVD video called Baby Einstein, later sold as Language Nursery.
The original video shows a variety of toys and visuals interspersed with music, stories, numbers, and words of many languages. This first video was popular with some parents, and Aigner-Clark eventually convinced a national retailer to test-market the video in six of its stores. Eventually, the video was marketed across the United States. Other videos followed, some featuring the Clarks' two daughters, Aspen and Sierra.
Baby Einstein became a multi-million dollar franchise; its revenue grew from $1 million in 1998 to around $10 million in 2000. Aigner-Clark sold a 20% stake in the company to Artisan Entertainment in February 2000 and sold the rest to The Walt Disney Company for an undisclosed amount in November 2001. The franchise is named after and pays significant royalties to the estate of deceased physicist Albert Einstein, putting him in the top 5 of most earning dead celebrities, according to Forbes.
As a subsidiary of Disney, the production budgets were increased and the concept was expanded to teach more complex topics that would appeal to preschoolers, including Baby MacDonald, a video about agriculture. Titles currently available include Baby Bach Musical Adventure, Baby da Vinci From Head To Toe, Baby Monet Discovering The Seasons, and Baby Newton World of Shapes. A line of educational toys was also developed. In 2005, the franchise inspired a Disney Channel animated television series called Little Einsteins.
The official Baby Einstein website is available in 7 languages, with specific content for 12 different countries.
On January 23, 2007 The Baby Einstein Company was mentioned in the State of the Union address by President George W. Bush. Aigner-Clark, along with other notable U.S. citizens, was invited to sit in the gallery during the speech, and was recognized by Bush during his presentation to the nation. Bush has been criticized by the left for his recognition of Aigner-Clark, whose claim to fame is the creation of a media franchise which "plays off the status anxiety of neurotic parents." Agner-Clark's Husband, William E. Clark, had donated $5,150 to the RNC and Bush in 2004.
Although Julie Aigner-Clark no longer owns or operates the company she founded, she is visibly active as a consultant and spokesperson for the series, and maintains Julie's Corner, a blog hosted at the Baby Einstein website. In each video, she can be seen in advertisements promoting the series. Since selling to Disney, Aigner-Clark has been working on "The Safe Side," which instructs elementary-aged kids about safety around strangers. The video teams her with John Walsh, host of America's Most Wanted.
Complaint to FTC
In May 2006, the (CCFC) filed a complaint with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) against the Baby Einstein Company and the Brainy Baby Company, a producer of similar videos; the following month the CCFC amended the complaint to include another producer, BabyFirstTV. The CCFC alleged false advertising by these companies, citing the American Academy of Pediatrics' recommendation that children under two should be discouraged from watching television at all, and a study showing that only six percent of parents are aware of that recommendation, while 49 percent of parents think educational videos like these are very important in the intellectual development of children.
In December 2007, the FTC closed the complaint, determining not to recommend any enforcement action against the company. In so doing, the FTC noted that certain of the claims that were the subject of the CCFC’s complaint did not raise issues under the FTC’s substantiation rules. Other factors considered by the FTC in making its determination included the redesign of the Baby Einstein website, which removed certain product testimonials and product descriptions, as well as the company's representations that it would take steps to ensure that any advertising claims with respect to educational and developmental value would be properly substantiated. However, the websites of Baby Einstein in languages other than English are not all modified in the same way. For example, its official Chinese website still contains the product effect statement as "For example, the Little van Gough released by us can initiate your baby's interest and recognition of colors."
Controversy over effects on language development
In August 2007, the Journal of Pediatrics published a preprint version of the results of a study by researchers at the University of Washington on the effects of television and DVD/video viewing on language development in children under two years of age. The study, the second conducted by the same researchers as part of a larger project, was a correlational study based on telephone interviews with parents of children aged 2 to 24 months.
The study's authors, Drs. Frederick Zimmerman, Dimitri Christakis, and Andrew Meltzoff, concluded that, among infants aged 8 to 16 months, exposure to "baby DVDs/videos" — such as Baby Einstein and Brainy Baby — was strongly associated with lower scores on a standard language development test. This result was specific to baby-oriented educational videos and did not hold for other types of media, and was not related to shared parental viewing. Among toddlers aged 17 to 24 months, the study found no significant effects, either negative or positive, for any of the forms of media that were viewed. Daily reading and storytelling, however, were found to be associated with somewhat higher language scores, especially for toddlers.
The University of Washington press release announcing the study explained that for each hour-per-day spent watching baby DVDs/videos, infants understood on average six to eight fewer words than infants who did not watch them, and recommended that parents limit their use. "There is no clear evidence of a benefit coming from baby DVDs and videos and there is some suggestion of harm," said lead author Frederick Zimmerman. "We don't know for sure that baby DVDs and videos are harmful, but the best policy is safety first. Parents should limit their exposure as much as possible."
Christakis, a pediatrician, said that he is "frequently asked by parents what the value of these products is," and stated, "The evidence is mounting that they are of no value and may in fact be harmful. Given what we now know, I believe the onus is on the manufacturers to prove their claims that watching these programs can positively impact children's cognitive development."
In response to the negative media reports generated by the study and the press release, the Baby Einstein Company issued the following statement:
Baby Einstein is committed to maintaining the highest standards in the development of all of our products. After thoroughly analyzing the University of Washington study, we have serious concerns about the many contradictions between the study's conclusions and the content of its press release that created publicity which incorrectly suggests that this study focused on Baby Einstein products. In fact, the report concludes by stating “The analysis presented here is not a direct test of the developmental impact of viewing baby DVDs/videos. We did not test through experimental manipulation whether viewing baby DVDs/videos has a positive or negative impact on vocabulary acquisition.”
On August 13, 2007, Robert Iger, president and CEO of the Walt Disney Company, the owner of Baby Einstein, demanded that the University of Washington retract the press release, asserting that the study itself doesn’t support the claims made by the University’s public relations department. On August 16, University of Washington President Mark A. Emmert rejected Disney's complaints, saying that the university stands behind the research and that the press release accurately reflected the paper's conclusions and the scientists' commentary.
See also
External links
- Disney's Official Baby Einstein DVD listing*
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