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Cocomelon is designed to be addictive (www.youtube.com)

submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

23 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I though that Cocomelon videos are just dumb videos to keep children distracted, but I didn't know that they are purposefully designed to keep children hooked. What's your stance on their videos?

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (3 children)

A while back there was an interesting article comparing Bluey and Cocomelon: https://www.readtrung.com/p/why-i-love-bluey-and-hate-cocomelon

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

comparing Bluey and Cocomelon

ugh, that's not even a comparison.

Fun fact btw: Bluey started off as an Australian public broadcasting production. Bought by Disney now, but I suspect they made a deal that gives them artistic freedom. Still sad that money wins.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Good news for you today, Disney does not own Bluey. They're just paying for the rights to stream it on Disney+ - https://www.themarysue.com/bluey-is-on-disney-but-is-it-a-disney-show/

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

Thanks, that's good to know. Maybe it's still on public broadcasting in Australia.

The things people write about Bluey... but I understand, I was very touched, too.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

Disney licenses the distribution/streaming rights to Bluey, and just signed the theater and streaming rights to the upcoming Bluey movie (scheduled for 2027) but doesn't own merchandising rights. They did, however, just recently sign a deal for rights to use the characters in theme parks and cruises.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

Thanks for sharing! It was interesting (and horrifying) read!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Once a month, children are brought to [a London studio], one at a time, and shown a handful of episodes to figure out exactly which parts of the shows are engaging and which are tuned out.

For anyone older than 2 years old, the team deploys a whimsically named tool: the Distractatron.

It’s a small TV screen, placed a few feet from the larger one, that plays a continuous loop of banal, real-world scenes — a guy pouring a cup of coffee, someone getting a haircut — each lasting about 20 seconds. Whenever a youngster looks away from the Moonbug show to glimpse the Distractatron, a note is jotted down.

“It’s not super interesting, what’s on the Distractatron,” said Maurice Wheeler, who runs the research group. “But if they aren’t fully focused, they might go, ‘Oh, what’s that?’ and kind of drift over. We can see what they’re looking at and the exact moment when they got distracted.”

What a waste of all lives involved.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 day ago

They actually did something similar when creating Sesame Street (and I think Blues Clues); the main difference being the goal was to make the educational parts the most attention grabbing, so kids with parents who just plop them in front of the TV would be more prepared for school.