BBC Creative has launched a campaign for BBC Children’s that looks at children’s screen time, and social perceptions about it.
The campaign launched with a new TV spot, The Square Eyed Boy, created in collaboration with Blinkink and directed by Sam Gainsborough (Facing It). This 60-second stop-motion animation aims to reassure parents that screens, when used responsibly, can be a powerful tool for their children’s education and development.
Inspired by old TV bingeing admonition, “You’ll get square eyes,” The Square Eyed Boy introduces a young boy whose eyes have been transformed into squares due to his use of screens. The film tackles the judgments surrounding screen usage, depicting the boy and his family as objects of scrutiny and dismissal by onlookers.
As the story unfolds, audiences are taken on a journey through finely crafted animation that challenges these preconceptions, highlighting ways that screens — when supported by age-appropriate and thoughtfully curated content — can actually benefit children in many ways, such as learning, discovering, expressing ideas, connecting with others and developing essential communication skills. By challenging the saying, the film offers a new perspective — maybe screens don’t give you square eyes, but can actually make you well rounded.
A U.K.-wide survey of some 2,010 parents taken in May 2023, commissioned by BBC Children’s and Education, found that 79% of parents feel that their children have used screens more since the start of the pandemic. While 67% parents feel concerned about what their child is watching, parents do see real value in screens, with 65% agreeing that they have the ability to foster creativity and communication.
The Square Eyed Boy was created to assure parents that there’s beneficial content they can trust on the BBC, emphasized in the concluding message, “Screens, it’s what’s on them that counts.”
The film is a part of a larger campaign that spans across Out of Home advertising and social, which aims to add nuance to the screen debate and to help guide parents. The campaign will also be supported through editorial content across the BBC.
Watch The Square Eyed Boy making-of featurette on BlinkInk’s website.
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