Pokemon tops Reason.com's list of most absurd covers for Time magazine. In this case, "absurd" refers to feature stories designed to put the fear of something into the American public (and increase readership.)
Time's Nov. 1999 cover starring Poliwhirl, Pikachu and others warns readers: "For many kids it's now an addiction: cards, video games, toys, a new movie. Is it bad for them?"
Time doesn't dwell too long on any substantive data (there isn't any) that might show what sort of sustained violence and mayhem would make Pokemon an "addiction" (Time's word). Instead, it quickly cuts to what the authors see as the real dark heart of the Pokemon phenomenon: crass capitalism! Time works up a lather over the over-saturation of cuddly consumerism, calling Pokemon a "pestilential Ponzi scheme—complete with a fold-out graphic explaining why."
Of course, we haven't seen kids who played Pokemon growing up turn into greedy capitalists, unless, of course, Bernie Madoff and his ilk spent their weekends trading Pokemon cards instead of doing more traditional rich-guy stuff like, oh, polishing their yachts with diapers.
Other 'absurd' covers include a story on Cyberporn, Obesity in America, Crack Kids and more. See the full list on Reason.com [via Boing Boing].
Libe Goad is the Editor-in-Chief of AOL's GameDaily.com and Playsavvy.com, and has written about gaming and technology for the past decade. Follow her at twitter.com/libe_goad.
Reader Comments (2)
Two of our younger staffers grew up playing Pokemon, and they don't seem any more greedy or capitalistic than the rest of us. I think it's another case of people laying the blame on video games for society's ills, just like they did with radio, movies and music years ago. Game and the Internet is everyone's favorite scapegoat!
Very nice. Perhaps there might be a connection later in the future that Pokemon is connected to violence and greed in the kids of the future.