Mitt Romney Wants Advertisements on Sesame Street

Responding to a voter in Iowa who asked how he would reduce spending if elected, Mitt Romney said some programs would have to be cut. And then he said:

 You might say, ‘I like the National Endowment for the Arts.’ I do. I like PBS. We subsidize PBS. Look, I’m going to stop that. I’m going to say that PBS is going to have to have advertisement. “We’re not going to kill Big Bird, but Big Bird’s going to have to have advertisements, all right? And we’re going to have endowments for the arts and humanities but they’re going to be paid for by private charity not by taxpayers — or by borrowers.

Raw Story reported:

Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind the PBS children’s show Sesame Street, says that the program was designed for children between the ages of 2 and 5, but is increasingly being watched by kids under the age of 2. 

As of 2009, nearly 77 million Americans had watched Sesame Street as children.

In the late 1970s, the Federal Trade Commission determined that advertising to children under the age of 6 was unfair and deceptive. Research has also shown that children under the age of 8 have no defenses against advertising and often take advertising claims at face value.

Some countries like Sweden and Norway ban all advertising directed at children under 12, while other countries such as the United Kingdom, Greece, Denmark and Belgium place restrictions on advertising.

 Watch it:

*This post originally contained an error, saying Rick Perry, not Mitt Romney.