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bgsu1162674582.pdf (227.31 KB)
ETD Abstract Container
Abstract Header
‘Great Minds Start Little’: Unpacking the Baby Einstein Phenomenon
Author Info
Gothie, Sarah Conrad
Permalink:
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1162674582
Abstract Details
Year and Degree
2006, Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, Popular Culture.
Abstract
Baby Einstein Company, a forerunner in the 0-3 children’s video market, has expanded over the past decade from a former teacher’s small, in-home business to a Disney-owned brand with annual sales topping $200 million. The brand has become a watchword in infant development among households with young children thanks to its first and best-known products, enrichment videos bearing titles like Baby Shakespeare, Baby Van Gogh, and Baby Da Vinci. The company, with its implied promise of visual, verbal, and scientific literacy, harnessed metaphor and cultural myth and surmounted parental anxieties about television viewing to become an influential cultural phenomenon. This thesis explores the cultural phenomenon of Baby Einstein Company, including the social context and public relations efforts that facilitated its rise to popularity, how the format and content of the videos accomplish stated goals, issues of representation and consumerist ideology within the texts, how the company’s popularity reflects notions of American middle class childhood and parenting, and finally, the future of the controversial 0-3 digital media market.
Committee
Becca Cragin (Advisor)
Pages
59 p.
Subject Headings
American Studies
Keywords
Baby Einstein
;
children's media
;
children's television
;
children's culture
;
Disney
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Citations
Gothie, S. C. (2006).
‘Great Minds Start Little’: Unpacking the Baby Einstein Phenomenon
[Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1162674582
APA Style (7th edition)
Gothie, Sarah.
‘Great Minds Start Little’: Unpacking the Baby Einstein Phenomenon.
2006. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis.
OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center
, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1162674582.
MLA Style (8th edition)
Gothie, Sarah. "‘Great Minds Start Little’: Unpacking the Baby Einstein Phenomenon." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2006. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1162674582
Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)
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Document number:
bgsu1162674582
Download Count:
6,727
Copyright Info
© 2006, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.