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Key points
- Dan Ogilive was one of the psychologists consulted in the effort that, eventually, produced Sesame Street.
- Ogilive describes how he stumbled on discovering that advertisements capture kids' attention.
- The conclusion that ads worked as a learning tool was discovered by observing children's natural behavior in an unstructured environment.
by Dan Ogilvie
At age 82, I am in the middle part of the risky phase of life called life review. Like any life, mine has had successes and failures, and things good and bad. One chapter of my professional life, in particular, stands out on the good side. It was a time when I made a useful and enduring contribution to the education of young children.
The story began in 1968 when I was asked to participate in something called the Children’s Television Workshop (CTW). It was an organization headed by Joan Cooney, an NYC producer committed to closing the gap between white and nonwhite children in terms of their readiness for public education.
The Carnegie Foundation supported Joan’s desire to explore the possibility of investing in innovative TV programming to narrow the gap. Jerry Lesser at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, was a member of Joan’s Board, asked me to get involved by helping him select and invite a dozen or so early education specialists to participate In some workshops in the summer of 1968.
The group included prominent cognitive psychologists, who we flagged for promising research in developing reading and numerical skills. The list was supplemented by writers and illustrators of children’s books, experienced teachers, movers and shakers in the television business.
Many ideas were generated at the first workshop in June. Most participants seemed to be fully engaged in the idea that television shows could be educational for children, and most managed to leave their egos at the door. I was impressed by how articulate and smart the participants were. But a critical element was missing in the first round of their deliberations.
It became evident that none of the participants had ever watched children watch TV. That struck me as a genuine limitation.
My remedy was to borrow Robert Freed Bales’s small group's lab at Harvard for a weekend. The lab featured a large one-way observation mirror. I brought a TV, lots of toys, and a dozen or so 3-5-year-olds into the lab on the weekend and observed them watch or not watch TV.
For the most part, children treated the TV as background noise after ten minutes or so. They preferred other activities like playing games, fighting over toys, exploring the room, doing kid stuff. However, there was one reliable exception to this general pattern. It was showtime when commercials were aired.
Commercials worked as magnets for their attention. No matter what they were doing, spot ads turned heads. The ads were a little louder, contained animations, snappy tunes, and were brief — lasting between 30 seconds and a minute. Sometimes I witnessed a few children speak the words and sing the tunes promoting products like GI Joes, Barbie dolls, and sugary cereals. They must have seen them before in their homes.
I mentioned these observations to someone Joan called Maurie, who sat next to me at the next workshop meeting. I chatted with him about the potential of children learning letters and numbers if they were presented in advertisement formats. Maurie (turned out to be Maurice — Where the Wild Things Are — Sendak) loved the idea and told Joan Cooney to pay attention to the young man next to him. She did and gave me the time necessary to describe and elaborate on my observations.
Jim Henson was also at the meeting. He had been invited because of his history of making profitable commercials for adults using puppets. He initially expressed no interest in becoming involved in a show for kids.
My volunteer activities with CTW ended after the summer workshops were over. However, I was aware of some interesting developments within CTW the following year.
- Its research team headed by Ed Palmer had converted my soft science into more rigorous science that confirmed my observations that advertisements attracted children's attention.
- The TV show had been given the name Sesame Street.
- Jim Henson had become committed to the show.
- Puppets on the show were called muppets.
In short, that’s how it came about that M’s and P’s, eights and nines became sponsors of Sesame Street with the able assistance of Elmo, Oscar, The Count, and other members of the mob of muppets.
It is important to emphasize that my contribution was based on science — the good, old-fashioned science of observation. I did not have a hunch that children paid attention to commercials. It was not a product of speculation. It was a fact gleaned from systematic observation of children doing what they naturally do. It was a small step with widespread consequences.
Dan Ogilvie worked in personality and development for over 40 years. He was one of the Rutgers' Psychology Department's most effective teachers for that time, including prestigious teaching awards, and has a TED talk on why children believe they have souls here.
