PBS Kids Sprout, the digital cable channel aimed at children, this week began running a campaign featuring a cover of Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”
Made by independent ad agency Red Tettemer in Philadelphia, the campaign includes three spots, print, and outdoor and is meant to serve as a rallying cry akin to MTV’s “I want my MTV” of years ago. PBS Kids Sprout, which launched in 2005 and is part owned by Comcast, is currently seen in 38 million homes.
The song is performed by Elizabeth Mitchell from her album “You Are My Little Bird” (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings). Spirit Music Group administers the Blue Mountain catalog in North America and the Blue Mountain catalog includes the entire Bob Marley catalog. Spirit took the catalog to a variety of kid-focused companies including production houses, children’s films and PBS.
This is not the first time the Marley family has been involved in commercial ventures aimed at children said Ziggy Marley, one of Bob’s children, and head of the Marley estate. “It’s less about the regular marketing of things and more about the philosophy that kids have an open mind. From the marketing point of view, my father’s music is kid friendly music,” he said. Other Marley projects focused on children in the past have included books, and kid friendly films and TV shows such as Shark’s Tales and Dora the Explorer as well charities such as Little Kids Rock and Unlimited Resources Giving Enlightenment.
Ziggy Marley is currently working on an album with Grammy winning children’s musician Dan Zanes and an animated series about growing up in Kingston, Jamaica that focuses on lessons such as charity, unity and loving one another.
“We’ve kind of realized we’ve been singing for all the older folks and maybe we should focus on the kids. Our brand is kid friendly and parents who love the Marley ideal teach their kids that philosophy,” said Marley. “We’ve been doing this stuff for a while but we wanted to step it up a little. Our mission in life is to make a change in the world, we’re not just here to grab some cash.”
