On July 14th I wrote this letter:
Dear Hulu,
Thank you so much for showing half-naked woman and violence toward women to my 7-year-old.
Imagine my surprise today – I decided to reactivate my Hulu Plus subscription so my son could watch The Cosby Show – as he sat there waiting patiently for his show to start, half-dressed sexy woman started walking across the screen, followed by images of them in various states of inappropriate dress, and then he saw a clearly dead or badly injured woman being dragged across the floor. BRAVO! That is EXACTLY what I was hoping for when I turned on The Cosby Show for a 7-year-old!
You may be young, and think WHO CARES? Well I care, and many other parents do too. We specifically choose platforms like Hulu and Netflix so that our children will not be subjected to the increasingly inappropriate content poured into their minds through television commercials.
It is unthinkable that Hulu programmers would not take the time to make sure that the commercials they are showing on their various programs are appropriate for the audiences watching them. There is no way that a commercial for Devious Maids (which by the way sounds like something I made up) is appropriate for the same audience that would watch a show like The Cosby’s. I can promise you if my parents saw that fly by when I was watching the show its first time around, that would be its last time too.
Do me a favor and get this email to someone who can actually address my concern. I am hoping to hear back. I will be posting this letter later this week on my blog, which has a fairly high readership and influence, I hope to say that Hulu’s response was satisfactory.
Sincerely,
Jen Kehl
Alright, so maybe I lied about my blog being highly influential. But they didn’t know that. I let it go a little too long, but I guess I was hoping I would hear back. The only response I got was the auto-reply that came after immediately sending this.
Hi,
Thanks for writing. We’re always interested in hearing from you, and
we’ll try to respond as quickly as possible. We can’t answer every
e-mail we receive, but we appreciate all the feedback. If you need any
technical support, we recommend scanning our Help Site first as it
includes the answers to many common questions. You can also contact
our Support team there to get further assistance, or pass along any
feedback. We also have some specific e-mail addresses set up to handle certain
issues. Using one of these e-mail addresses, when appropriate, will
get your note the proper attention more quickly.
* Technical support — support@hulu
* General feedback and suggestions — feedback@hulu
* Press inquiries — media@hulu
* Advertisers — advertisers@hulu
* Publisher sites / device partners — distribution@hulu
Lastly, please be aware that it is Hulu’s policy not to accept
unsolicited submissions of any kind, including without limitation
scripts, story lines, treatments, outlines, articles, fan fiction,
characters, drawings, information, suggestions, ideas, and/or
concepts. As stated in our Terms of Use which governs all use of the
Hulu.com website and communications to Hulu through this e-mail
address, Hulu’s policy is to delete any such submission without
reading or reviewing it. Therefore, any similarity between an
unsolicited submission and any elements in any Hulu creative work,
including a film, series, story, title, or concept, would be purely
coincidental.Thanks,
Thanks for writing. We’re always interested in hearing from you, and
we’ll try to respond as quickly as possible. We can’t answer every
e-mail we receive, but we appreciate all the feedback. If you need any
technical support, we recommend scanning our Help Site first as it
includes the answers to many common questions. You can also contact
our Support team there to get further assistance, or pass along any
feedback. We also have some specific e-mail addresses set up to handle certain
issues. Using one of these e-mail addresses, when appropriate, will
get your note the proper attention more quickly.
* Technical support — support@hulu
* General feedback and suggestions — feedback@hulu
* Press inquiries — media@hulu
* Advertisers — advertisers@hulu
* Publisher sites / device partners — distribution@hulu
Lastly, please be aware that it is Hulu’s policy not to accept
unsolicited submissions of any kind, including without limitation
scripts, story lines, treatments, outlines, articles, fan fiction,
characters, drawings, information, suggestions, ideas, and/or
concepts. As stated in our Terms of Use which governs all use of the
Hulu.com website and communications to Hulu through this e-mail
address, Hulu’s policy is to delete any such submission without
reading or reviewing it. Therefore, any similarity between an
unsolicited submission and any elements in any Hulu creative work,
including a film, series, story, title, or concept, would be purely
coincidental.Thanks,
So, just incase you are thinking you are safe by sticking your kid in front of Hulu to watch some family friendly show while you wash the dishes. I would say, yeah…. no. Hulu is not safe for kids if this is what they’re gonna see while you’re not there to jump in front of the screen like a wild woman, spread eagle, hoping to cover the whole screen while you know your kid is trying his darndest to see what it is you’re hiding from him!
