Campaign For A Commercial-Free Childhood is a national
coalition
of health care professionals, educators,
advocacy groups and concerned parents who counter the harmful
effects of marketing to children through action, advocacy,
education, research, and collaboration. We support the rights of
children to grow up – and the rights of parents to raise them –
without being undermined by rampant commercialism.
CCFC is the only national
organization devoted to stopping the commercial exploitation of
childhood.
History
The Coalition
evolved from two events: In 1999, an innovative conference held
at Howard University brought together a diverse and
interdisciplinary group of activists, academics, educators and
healthcare providers concerned about the corporate influences on
children. One year later, a number of conference attendees
gathered in New York City to protest the Golden Marble Awards,
the advertising industry’s celebration of marketing to children;
the Coalition was born.
Since then,
CCFC has been at the forefront of a growing movement to protect
children from commercial exploitation. Our annual summit on the
harms of marketing to children draws experts and activists from
a number of fields. The Coalition continued to protest the
Golden Marbles – until the industry canceled the awards in
2003. Our other grassroots efforts continue to take on the most egregious corporate offenders and mobilize support for
legislation that would help protect children from marketers.
CCFC has also hosted well-attended Congressional briefings.
Through our efforts, journalists, legislators, educators, and
public health officials are, for the first time, questioning the
ethics of marketing to children. Our voices can be heard
advocating for children in media such as CNN, Newsweek
and Time, building public awareness of the harms
associated with commercialism and strengthening the public will
to foment change.
Mission
CCFC’s long term goals are the adoption of government policies
that limit corporate marketers’ access to children and the
mobilization of parents, educators, and health care providers to
reclaim childhood from corporate marketers. To achieve these
ends we have several short term goals geared toward fomenting
the public will for change by raising public awareness about
ways that advertising and marketing exploits children and about
the harms that a commercialized culture inflicts on children,
families, the environment, and a democratic society. These goals
are:
- To build a substantial network of organizations and
individuals who serve as a grassroots support for efforts to
stop the commercial exploitation of children.
- To garner substantial media coverage for campaigns that
highlight the advertising and marketing industries’ unending
assault on children.
- To be a primary resource for parents, press, researchers,
advocates, and legislators interested in gathering information
about marketing to children.
- To place the commercialization of childhood on the agenda of
organizations and groups who are not directly concerned about
commercialism but whose goals are being undermined by
advertising and marketing to children, including environmental
groups as well as health and educational organizations.
- To hold corporations accountable for their egregious marketing
practices and, in doing so, to highlight both the failures of
self-regulation and the need for government policies limiting
corporate marketers’ access to children.
