Madeleine McCann info shown before Shrek, anyone else cross about this?

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I was. I have chosen NOT to tell my nearly 4yo about this. I haven't discussed it in detail with 9yo ds either I CHOOSE not to put the news on in our house. I really resent this being shoved at my children before a U cert movie. Completely inappropriate imo.

scroll down hun

xxx

Thanks, have done and have submitted complaint.

Tbh this wouldnt annoy me - whilst it is nice to keep children oblivious to the dangers in life my son is 4 and has asked questions about Madeleine which I have answered him in an honest but watered down way. I have also used the opportunity to explain stranger danger to him although playgoup have already touched on it.

I dont blame her family for doing everything they can to find her - I guess this was just percieved to be a way of reaching the people who would empathise with them the most.

When the adverts are on my children are generally more interested in their sweets, drink & enjoying the cinema experience they dont take much notice of the adverts at all.

i took my son to see Shrek at weekend to an Odeon cinema and it showed the Maddy advert, i was deeply angered that they showed this at a kids movie, kids weren't bothered by it, by i feel it was totally inappropriate to show it at a cinema, i know they want to keep the profile alive, but come on, we can only take so much.

So basically the parents are incandescent with rage and the children oblivious and more interested in their munchies.

The ad was very emotive, though, cc... it used phrases like 'snatched from her bed while she was asleep' and things, which could really worry young children (even those, like mine, who do know the bare bones of the case). I have suggested to Cineworld that it should only be shown before films that are PG or above. After all, they are only allowed to show U trailers before a U-classified film...

I don't blame the family for wanting to do all they can. But we, as parents, should be able to choose what we tell our kids about such cases, and when we do so. The cinemas should have had the common sense to know that this was not appropriate before Shrek.

My dd's are 7 and 5, dd1 does know about Maddy, I discussed it with her after she had seen some of the clips, she was concerned, but after we talked about it she seemed reasured that she was safe. She made me promise that we wouldn't leave her and her sister in the room alone when we go to Greece in August, which isn't something we do on holiday anyway. dd2 has not spoken about Maddy and I assume she doesn't understand what has happened.

If dd1 had not been aware and had seen it at the cinema I think she would have been worried all through the film, without being able to discuss it I think it would have really upset her.

I don't think before a U cert film is the right time or place to show this.

We saw Shrek at Cineworld last weekend and it wasn't shown.

cod!!!! that's not nice and i dont believe it anyway

Contentious Cat: Totally agree

My kids commented on it both at the time ('Haven't they found her yet?' - they assume that she will be found safe and well at some point) and afterwards (commenting on the distinctive mark in her eye and again on how she hadn't been found yet), so I don't think it's safe to assume that kids won't take any notice of these things (... dd2 (5) managed to take in the info about Madeleine's eye in great detail while simultaneously scoffing her own body-weight in popcorn).

yes CC too right

Cod I probably would have said "shes dead" in the past but there were two cases last year one boy, one girl where they both turned up alive after some time missing so who knows.

I don't get the feeling she's dead.

This is just all a very sad case indeed.

How odd, I didn't realise the cineams were doing this. I have tried hard to shield my 6 year old DD's from this, despite MIL's determination to discuss it in front of them . One of them went through a phase of being quite obssessed with it all and worried about sleeping in her own bed, so I would hate them to be subjected to this on a trip to the cinema. Extremely inappropriate IMO.

DD's first comment to me this morning was, 'are the police still looking for that little girl?'

cc, I wish the popcorn had distracted her attention away from the screen, believe me -- but it did not.

Aren't all adverts on at cinemas supposed to be certificated and you're not allowed to show adverts which are a 'higher' certificate than that of the film - so a 15 rated advert isn't allowed on at a PG film for example. What certificate did this advert have? Surely not a U?

I still dont understand what kidsa re supposed to be doing about it? why not show it at an adults film only?

lol at CC

xxx

I agree with the op. Dd is oblivious of the McCann case, ds isn't. I don't see what possible assistance it will be to the poor McCanns showing this ad in the UK so will check very carefully with the venue before I take them to see Shrek Three. Dd is near to Madeleine's age and going through quite a worried/clingy phase right now so she would ask questions and be smart enough to be distressed by the situation
Ds came into our room every night on a recent holiday because he feared it might happen to him and his sister, and he has not had any feedback from us to cause that concern - just what he's spotted on newspaper headlines in shops etc, which are an unavoidable part of normal life. A large ad before a U certificate screening is unnecessary and avoidable, and not likely to resolve the McCann case.

The more I think about it the more cross it makes me

has there been any news reporting of people's attitudes to it?

I've not seen any enid.

Children are very resilient I took my son to hospital for some treatment he got over it within about half an hour and was racing about the ward and has now completely forgotten about it the experience completely traumatised me and still makes me shudder now. I doubt if you children will be scarred for life by the experience although I do agree perhaps it should only be shown with PG films.

My children know Madeline was taken away from her mummy and daddy by a bad person and everyone is looking for her and thats all they need to know.

When I phoned cineworld they said I was the only complainer.

Some children are resilient cc. Not all.
MrRuffalo is not the only person on here with a family life experience that has left a permanent legacy of anxiety with a child or its parents.

"So, would you be fed up of hearing about it if it were your child that were missing?". of course not, because it would be my child, but it's not. My ds is aware that Madeleine was lost, and he's heard her name on the news etc, but he certainly doesn't need to know that she was taken from her bed, the place where a child is supposed to feel the safest.

tbh I don't see the point any more. If, and IMO it's a very big if, but if Madeleine is still alive, then she almost certainly won't look the same as she does in those adverts/posters etc.

Anyone who can calculate the abduction of a child from the apartment at a particular time so as to abduct her in a half hour slot, is surely inteligent enough to know that her picture will almost certainly make it into the media, and it would therefore be adviseable to change her appearance. And even if they hadn't thought of it initially, as soon as the media coverage began and the poster campaign etc, they would have almost certainly taken steps then. The long hair would have been cut off, died, and you'd have to get pretty close to look for the blemish in her eye, something which you wouldn't do if it was a brown short-haired little girl as opposed to a long-haired blonde one iyswim.

But I think it's highly unlikely she's still alive tbh.