Nickelodeon Went Off The Air For 8 Minutes And 46 Seconds In Support Of Black Lives Matter
Yesterday, Nickelodeon went off the air for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, the same amount of time disgraced Minnesota policeman Derek Chauvin knelt on the neck of George Floyd as he died.
At 6 P.M. ET Monday evening, the kids' entertainment channel posted what it called the "Declaration of Kids Rights." They read:
You have the right to be seen, heard and respected as a citizen of the world.
You have the right to a world that is peaceful.
You have the right to be treated with equality, regardless of the color of your skin.
You have the right to be protected from harm, injustice, and hatred.
You have the right to an education that prepares you to run the world.
You have the right to your opinions and feelings, even if others don't agree with them.
On Twitter, they shared the message with the hashtag Black Lives Matter.
we are all part of the change #blacklivesmatter✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽✊🏼✊🏻 pic.twitter.com/Y3Fzvob54X
— Nickelodeon (@Nickelodeon) June 1, 2020
Nickelodeon, along with other Viacom-owned networks MTV, VH1, Comedy Central and TV Land, aired also aired an 8-minute and 46-second spot featuring the sound of breathing as the words "I can't breathe" flashed on screen, a provocative ad echoing Floyd's last words.
The ad stunned viewers, who felt it was a positive step towards initiating uncomfortable conversations between parents and children about race in America.
Nickelodeon.Growing up, they were pivotal in mine, and a whole generations development as children and adolescents.In 2020, they have proven that they aren't afraid to side publicly what is right.This video played on all of their channels for 8 minutes and 47 seconds.Wow. pic.twitter.com/xZEmHUhVHc
— Upmind! (@Upmind_) June 2, 2020
People griping at Nickelodeon for the "I Can't Breathe" spot. Claiming that it's "not the right platform" & that it is scaring their childrenIt should scare your children. If they learn of injustice from a cable network instead of their parents then that's on the parents.
— Patrick Scott Patterson (@OriginalPSP) June 2, 2020
nickelodeon said “you WILL talk to your child about racism whether you like it or not” https://t.co/vBoXCVrfST
— majka (@mjkaw) June 2, 2020
Nickelodeon played this for 8min and 46sec. Those of you saying this scared your children are wrong. There’s far scarier things on TV (e.g., the news). Your problem with this is the fact that your kids are now asking questions you don’t want/know to answer pic.twitter.com/1gyUXPqQYT
— El Crís (@NoSoyCristian) June 2, 2020
Many of the tweets praising Nickelodeon indicate there are a swath of white parents angry at the channel for the spot, but little evidence of that can be found on Twitter or on Nickelodeon's Facebook page. There, parents are praising Nickelodeon and relating stories about the conversations they had with their kids about the spot, what caused it, and police brutality in America.
However, on a lighter note, the idea of a swath of outraged parents and scared kids did lead one user to remember that truly no kids' show will ever be as scary as Courage the Cowardly Dog.
Them kids scared of that Nickelodeon ad never seen this nigga pic.twitter.com/FfqiGgyklg
— – (@BlackBishop187) June 2, 2020
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TheTechnoBot
Imagine some kid who had no idea about this stuff, just randomly watching Nickelodeon just for the TV screen to turn black saying "I can't breathe" and the sound of loud, troubled breathing.
That kid's gonna have nightmares.
Hootanic
That's the problem with this kind of corporate virtue signaling. For most children, there's no broader context or understanding imparted, it's words that are there for some reason – this is really for the parents, that 30+ hipster libtard dad that just plopped their kid down in front the TV for a "Yo-Gabba-Gabba" marathon that looks up from his phone when the sound goes quiet and sees this, strokes his well-groomed beard, and says "wow, Nick, right on! So responsible, much wow!"
We hear you loud and clear Viacom, virtue signaled.
TheTechnoBot
As much as I agree this stuff is ridiculous since I can't frankly view a company as anything more than an entity that exists nearly purely to generate income for its owners, I sure do hope your usage of "libtard" is ironic. That's the same as when leftists call people on the right "nazi" unironically. Further reason why I consider American politics to be among the worst in the world. They're just name-calling at this point. Don't let it fester within you.
AL2009man
fun fact: the one Nick uses is a similar message to this one:
Tio God of Soda
Hey kids guess what? We're gonna piss you off because of some movement you don't understand, because that will totally make you want support the movement.
ThisIsMyThrowaway
Grow up. I remembered when Nick did something similar to 9/11 when I was a kid. My parents never talked to me about it, I didn't watch the news so I didn't really care. I just changed the channel, but the next day my friends were talking about it and made me aware of what was going on. A conversation is likely going to start with a majority of these kids, that's really the first step is making them aware there's a huge problem going on.
classified
it's 8 minutes, not nickelodeon's worldwide day of play
Terry Jones
Eight minutes that should be repeated tomorrow, repeated as many times as it takes just to be sure the message gets through to these whiny over privileged parents.
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