While doing laundry with a few friends last night, the boredom of staring at the dryer topple my clothes became too much. We quickly turned to the one and only YouTube to provide a bit of entertainment during our wait. In the mood to laugh, we immediately looked up the oh so adorable Simon’s Cat. For background purposes, Simon’s Cat is an animated series on YouTube chronicling the day-to-day life of Simon and his mischievous cat. Very G rated and appealing to children, as well as those looking for some good, clean entertainment. Upon clicking on the video, as with all YouTube videos now, we were prompted to watch an ad before getting to enjoy our selection. What we were bombarded with next I did not have words for. Let’s just say if there wasn’t text telling me what the product was at the end of the ad I would have never known. The commercial was for a new Dolce & Gabbana perfume, yet there was no perfume in sight. There was, however, quite a bit of strategic near-nudity, an explicit sexual situation, and overall naughtiness that I was not expecting before such an innocent cartoon.

Now I am in no way a prude or opposed to sexuality in media, but this event did bring up an important question in my mind. What exactly is the media marketing to children in this day and age? If YouTube insists on showing advertisements before their hosted videos why can’t they use commercials that are similar, either in subject or appropriateness, to the video the viewer is anticipating? Everything has it’s time and place, but sexy perfume commercials, in my book, do not have a place before Simon's Cat.