We were on a wonderful vacation in the backwoods of Virginia with some friends. When I say backwoods, I mean…backwoods. Miles away from the conveniences of drug stores, shopping malls, restaurants. There was a power failure that had wiped out the internet for the majority of our trip. Yeah, I was pissed. The television only had a few channels despite being on satellite. Thankfully, aside from the one porno station my husband found and was worried about our kids finding, there was a few of the kids channels.
One night, around 9:30pm, our youngest son had a second wind. He had napped during the day which meant we were going to be in for a long night. So, I decided to let him sit on the bed in the master bedroom and watch television while he played with his action figures while I sat outside having a glass of wine with my husband as he smoked a disgustingly smelly cigar. The big kids were watching t.v in the family room part of the cabin.
Suddenly, I heard terrified, blood curdling screams. I went racing back into the cabin towards the direction of the master bedroom where my son was.
Sobbing, he told me about something he saw on television that wasn’t his regular show, The Family Guy. Yeah, judge away. It was the only cartoon on.
He went on to tell me it was the scariest thing he had ever seen. And a pretty girl turned ugly and bloody and ate a person. That’s how he described it to me.
I was not in that room for longer than a few minutes, soothing him and explaining that it was only a commercial for a dumb, scary, stupid movie when…
A commercial for THIS movie, which the only thing I could find was the trailer and that isn’t even as graphic and bloody as the commercial!!
Jennifers Body
This was every single commercial break.
My son had to witness this. He is five. This is for a Rated R movie. Which means you have to be 17 to see it in the theater. Or with someone who is 21 years or older. He was innocently watching a show with his Power Rangers. Silly me, I didn’t realize that I needed to be in the room with him while Cartoon Network was on.
This commercial is too horrifying and graphic for children to see.
The scene where she is bloody and devouring a guy. THAT should not be on television for our kids to have to even catch a glimpse of.
It is nightmare inducing. They are too young to process that it’s only a movie.
My son was up ALL NIGHT. From that fricking commercial. And I guarantee that he isn’t the only kid who has been disturbed by it.
There needs to be new guidelines in place.
I understand that the advertisers are trying to attract the horror film goers. But there has to be a way to go about this without showing the most visually disturbing scenes.
There are too many young children, like mine, who end up witnessing these types of visual assaults.
My mom told me that she had been watching the regular channels and that movie is being hyped in a big way with a commercial blitz. It was even somewhat disturbing to her, a grown woman.
Shouldn’t there be a more censored version of these commercials on channels that would draw a younger audience, if they have to show them at all? Those highly graphic ones should only be shown on channels that wouldn’t be attractive to the 13 and under set.
If it’s 10pm EST, it’s 7pm Pacific. That means that there are little kids watching in time zones where it’s generally a normal time for kids to be awake and watching television. 9:30pm isn’t late. And the channel was a kids channel, I believe it was Cartoon Network.
How far do movie commercials need to go to attract an audience? Why can’t commercials leave some things to the movie goers imaginations? Just because a movie is Rated R, doesn’t mean the commercial needs to prove it.
More importantly, who is going to help pay for the long term counseling my traumatized child is going to need? He hasn’t stopped talking about this commercial and is having nightmares every night.
And I’m tired. And pissed as hell.
I am very sensitive to that sort of thing. As in, I went to therapy for it as a kid and should go now. I have lost countless hours of sleep because of shit like this. I usually turn the channel or mute it and not look at the tv when a preview for a scary movie comes on. I can’t hsndle it. Your little guy needs to talk this out with someone before it becomes a big problem. I don’t want to scare you, Melissa, but I’m 26 and whatever I saw when I was young has messed me up big time.
Boy oh boy, I feel for you on this one. My oldest — and this did not happen on my watch — was allowed to see that alien autopsy show that came out 10 years ago or so. We went through hell for a long time after that. Her fear of aliens (which she thought lived in the picture frames and came out after dark) was out of control. No amount of reasoning or soothing or reassuring seemed to alleviate her fears. I hope you can get your little guy to a place where he can understand it was pretend stuff on TV and not real. That it was people playing dress up in a really yucky way or something like that. Good luck.
That is really bad! I hate that even with parental controls on my TV, my kid can still see snippets of CSI if she turns on the set and the wrong channel is on. (Fortunately our remote is very complicated and she can’t use it yet). The v-chip stuff has too many limitations!
Yuck!
X
Supa
I think after a certain time, the Cartoon Network shows “adult” shows. In fact, before Family Guy, there’s a viewer discretion advised warning.
For that very reason, I do not let my daughter watch Cartoon Network ever. Because I don’t want to be keeping track of their time schedule.
The lines are blurred these days. I miss when I was a kid and there was Scooby Doo and the Smurfs and animated stuff on TV was for the kids.
I agree with you. There’s no need for those graphic commercials to show up on TV. None at all.
Some kids don’t have a problem with this sort of thing, but a lot do. The people who arrange for the placement of these ads should take more responsibility for ensuring such ads don’t make their way in front of kids. Eegardless of what time the ad is shown, it should never find its way on to a channel for kids.
I agree with you 100%. There’s no reason that the commercials need to be that graphic. Adults who may be interested in that kind of movie can look the trailer up on the internet. It does not need to be shown on TV where anyone could accidentally stumble upon it.