Media Smart

This article is part of the Foodspin project of Spinwatch.

MediaSmart Logo

Media Smart is an organisation funded by fast-food, media and toy industries. Its website states it is a:

non profit media literacy programme for school children aged 6 to 11 years old, focused on advertising. Media Smart develops and provides, free of charge and on request, educational materials to primary schools that teach children to think critically about advertising in the context of their daily lives. Our materials use real examples of advertising to teach core media literacy skills. Media Smart is funded by the advertising business in the UK and is supported by the UK and EU governments....In the UK, it is one of the only media literacy programmes in which Ofcom plays an active role. Media Smart plays a key role in developing significantly young people’s understanding and constructive use of modern media, including its advertising content. It is an important contributor to building a media literate society in the UK."

History and Origins of Media Smart

The roots for Media Smart are seen in the Concerned Children's Advertisers organisation founded in Canada, which is also funded by transnational corporations.

Media Smart is based on a model developed by Canadian advertisers in the late 1980s called Concerned Children's Advertisers (CCA). Backed by giants such as Coca-Cola, Hershey and Buena Vista, the $10m CCA programme now claims huge success in cutting concern about children's marketing over there. "The Canadians were originally pushed into action by a ban on children's advertising in French-speaking Canada, but since the programme has been up and running, complaints on the issue across the rest of Canada have fallen to around zero," says [chairman Paul] Jackson. "I'm not saying there's an urgent threat here, but we must take the long-term view."

Listen to Paul Jackson explain what Media Smart does

Media Smart was incorporated as a business on 5 March 2002 and is a private company limited by guarantee. It is listed with Companies House as: MEDIA SMART UK LIMITED, Company No. 04387708

Funders

In 2002 it was revealed that each Media Smart supporter would pay between £25,000 and 30,000 each. However as more companies were to become linked to the agency the less each individual would have to pay.

Media Smart is funded by corporate sponsors and partner organisations. In 2008 these were:

Advertising Association | British Toy and Hobby Association | Business in the Community | DDB London | Ferrero | Five | GMTV | Hasbro | Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA) | Institute of Practitioners of Advertising (IPA) | Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) | ITV | Jetix | Kellogg's | Lego | Mars | Mattel | McDonald's | Mindshare | Turner Broadcasting | Viacom Brand Solutions

In 2016 funders are listed as follows:

Advertising Association | British Toy and Hobby Association | Britvic | Carat | Channel 4 | Facebook Ferrero | Google | Hasbro | Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA) | Internet Advertising Bureau | ITV | Lego | McCann Worldgroup | McDonald's | Mattel | Sky | Superawesome | Viacom

Independent Report

In 2006 Media Smart commissioned an independent evaluation of their BeAdwise 2 teaching materials from The Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media, Institute of Education, University of London. In 2007 the centre produced their independent report. The overall conclusions of the report were positive.

The authors of the report were

• Professor David Buckingham
• Dr Rebekah Willett
• Dr Shakuntala Banaji
• Dr Susan Cranmer

Buckingham and Willet are members of Media Smart's expert group.

An independent organisation?

• Mediasmart does not name its employees on its website. The office address is given as:-
  

Abford House:
15 Wilton Road:
London:
SW1V 1NJ

This office is also the address of the Advertising Association, which suggests that Media Smart is based inside the Advertising Association's offices.

• The domain mediasmart.org.uk is also registered by Media Smart, but a 'who is' with the British internet registry gives out a different address for Media Smart:
  

29 Cloth Fair
London
EC1A 7NN

This address houses the offices of Hudson Sandler and the Global Consulting Group(GCG) both of which are subsidiaries of Huntsworth. The GCG entry in the APPC register lists Media Smart as a client between December 2004 and November 2005. Prior to that Media Smart was represented by Ergo Communications Services which was acquired by Huntsworth in 2004.

• In 2008 the Media Smart website listed a new address:-
  

7th Floor North:
Artillery House:
11-19 Artillery Row:
London SW1P 1RT:
Telephone: 020 7526 3615 :
Fax: 020 7526 3699 :
Email: info@mediasmart.org.uk

This office is also the new address of the Advertising Association.

Recent Achievements

Media Smart cites the following progress since its launch in 2002.

• 1 million UK children have been taught with Media Smart materials so far
• More than 7200 UK primary schools use Media Smart materials — 30 per cent of all primary schools
• More than 80 per cent of teachers surveyed by Media Smart ‘found lessons about the selling purpose of advertising extremely useful’
• Almost 90 per cent ‘want more materials about advertising for children’
• More than £2.5 million of airtime has been donated by broadcasters to show Media Smart’s infomercial
• More than 50 per cent of UK children know about Media Smart

More recently Media Smart have created Digital Adwise, which is a set of online lessons intended to teach children about digital content 'in a fun and engaging way'.

Media Smart's international expansion

Media Smart's 'strong uptake in Britain has led to the programme being replicated and rolled out elsewhere'. It now has divisions in Belgium, The Netherlands, Poland, Ireland, Finland, Hungary, Portugal, Sweden and Germany.

Across Europe over three million children in 73,000 primary schools are using Media Smart materials. More than 19,000 have requested them. These programmes are supported by many powerful global companies including Microsoft, Nintendo, Hasbro and Nestle to name a few. Media Smart Germany (www.mediasmart.de) is owned according to the German internet registry by RTL DISNEY Fernsehen GmbH Co.KG.

For more detail see: Media Smart: International expansion of the Media Smart group

People

Staff

• Paul Jackson, chairman. In 2005 Jackson was recorded as Vice President of the World Federation of Advertisers and Chairman of the Responsible Advertising and Children Group which represents the interests of European Advertisers, agencies and the media.

No other employees are named on Media Smart's website.

Expert Group

Media Smart's Expert Group has changed only slightly since it was set up and includes a range of academics and experts in education, media and government officials from the regulator group Ofcom and the Advertising Association.

• Professor David Buckingham, Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media, Institute of Education
• Dr Rebekah Willett, Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media, Institute of Education
• Jenny Grahame, English and Media Centre
• Michael Simons, English and Media Centre
• Andrew Carruthers, Ofcom
• Simon White, Department for Culture Media and Sport
• Tony Halston, Department for Education and Skills
• Matteo Zacchetti, European Commission
• Janet Moffat, Melcombe Primary School
• Graham Brown, Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO
• Anna Chapman, Hasbro
• Laura Simons, Independent consumer affairs consultant

Expert Group (as of November 2008 and November 2010)

• David Buckingham Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media, Institute of Education
• Rebekah Willett Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media, Institute of Education
• Paul Jackson Media Smart’s Chairman
• Simon White Department for Culture, Media and Sport
• Jenny Grahame English and Media Centre
• Matteo Zacchetti European Commission
• Richard Cornish Hasbro
• Laura Simons Independent consumer affairs advisor
• Robin Blake Ofcom

Policymakers

Media Smart appears to have a good relationship with some policymakers who speak highly of the work it does and consider it a beneficial programme for young children in the UK. Lord McIntosh, The Minister for Media and Heritage, said that:

“Media Smart’s work helps children to deal with the complex messages of advertising in a critical way and the government welcomes the advertising industry’s initiative to take a responsible role in this. I believe Media Smart’s work plays a valuable role in equipping children with the tools to make informed choices about their viewing, and to effectively use, interpret and understand what they are viewing.”

Tessa Jowell - the UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport - stated;

“Media Smart acknowledges the power of advertising and attempts to empower the consumer. And it is an example of an industry taking responsibility for its own actions. It is enlightened self-interest.”

Lobbying firms

Former lobbying firms

• APCO Worldwide

Resources

• Richard Cookson, Lobby Watch: Media Smart, British Medical Journal, 31 August 2011
• David Buckingham The appliance of science: the role of evidence in the making of regulatory policy on children and food advertising in the UK, International Journal of Cultural Policy, Volume 15, Issue 2 May 2009 , pages 201 - 215.
• David Buckingham Beyond the competent consumer: the role of media literacy in the making of regulatory policy on children and food advertising in the UK, International Journal of Cultural Policy, Volume 15, Issue 2 May 2009 , pages 217 - 230.
• Buckingham, David and Willett, Rebekah and Banaji, Shakuntala and Cranmer, Susan (2007) Media Smart Be Adwise 2: an evaluation. Media Smart, London, UK.
• EU/US Conference on Good Practices Action on Diet Physical Activity and Health Working Group One Paul Jackson, Media Smart Chairman 11 May 2006
• O'Sullivan, Terry (2007) 'Get MediaSmart®: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Controversy Around Advertising to Children in the UK', Consumption Markets & Culture, 10:3, 293 - 314 To link to this article: DOI: 10.1080/10253860701365397 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10253860701365397