BusRadio Promoting 90210: Sexualization Scandal

In 2008, a remake of the original show 90210 was created by The CW, and was claiming to be "sexier" and "more entertaining" than the first series which aired twenty years prior. Around the same time, there was an initiative going around in public school buses called BusRadio. BusRadio was created to "provide several services to school buses, their drivers, and passengers. It was envisioned that the service would transmit music, original programming, PSAs, and paid commercials to school children traveling on school buses in selected school districts" (BusRadio, Wiki). It only had about 16% approval rating from parents, and there was a lot of controversy surrounding the initial movement. 

BusRadio claimed that they are an alternative to traditional FM Radio, and they promote age-appropriate material. However, parents began to find out that they were heavily promoting The CW's new show, 90210, to children as young as 6 years old. The CW's marketing strategy was to target tweens and young children, because they are most intrigued about the sexualized content, since they don't know much about it yet. 

Parents were angry because they felt their children were being assaulted with sexualized media in an area that they could not escape: the school bus. These parents have been working to shield their children from the harmful effects of pop culture. This type of media can influence their children's perception of their own self-image, other peoples images, and their own and other peoples behaviors.

After reading Jane Brown's article, "Disinterest, Intrigue, Resistance: Early Adolescent Girls' use of Sexual Media Content," we learn that there are three types of adolescent girls: disinterested, intrigued, and resistant. A large group of adolescent girls were studied, and divided into these three groups based on the their attitude toward sexuality in the media and in their life (Brown, 1987). The intrigued group is who The CW is targeting with their new show, 90210. These girls are interested heavily in the newly discovered world of "romance, sex, and relationships," and the media helped to provide them with these answers (Brown, 1987). 

Also, looking at "Sexy Media Matter: Exposure to Sexual Content in Music, Movies, Television, and Magazines Predicts Black and White Adolescents’ Sexual Behavior" written by Jane Brown, it showed that white girls who consume a larger amount of sexual media are more likely to have sexual intercourse at a younger age (Brown, 2006). In addition, "exposure to sexual content in music, movies, television, and magazines accelerates white adolescents’ sexual activity and increases their risk of engaging in early sexual intercourse" (Brown, 2006).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5ajU1Tk0Tw

In the clip shown above, it is a hate sex scene. Liam hates Vanessa, but is trying to keep her happy or else she will turn him in to the cops. In the second clip (which I couldn't get to imbed), Annie and Liam have sex for the first time. The catch: Annie is dating another guy named Charlie, and cheated on him with Liam. These are the kinds of things that BusRadio was promoting to these young girls on the bus, and making them intrigued about what was happening. Keep in mind that both scenes are showing the same guy, Liam, having sex with two different girls. Although it is at different times, this could easily influence young girls who are starting to explore sexualization in media that it is okay to act promiscuous and have multiple partners.

I'm not trying to talk bad about the show. I actually used to watch it religiously each week, but advertising this type of material to the easily molded brains of young girls can influence them to think certain ways and set certain ideals for themselves. This is especially potent if they are just beginning to explore sexual media content.

References:

Brown, J., White, A., Nikopoulou, L. (1987). Disinterest, Intrigue, Resistance: Early Adolescent Girls' use of Sexual Media Content. Center for Population Options.

Brown, J., (2006). Sexy Media Matter: Exposure to Sexual Content in Music, Movies, Television, and Magazines Predicts Black and White Adolescents' Sexual Behavior. Pediatrics.

"BusRadio." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2015.

Golin, Josh. "CCFC to BusRadio: Stop Promoting 90210 to Six-Year-Olds." Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2015.