This occurred with superb effect in the 1937 Christmas shopping season with The Cinnamon Bear. The Syndicated Serials were packaged and sold to local broadcasters in a form that would allow them to inject local advertising. The Cereal Serials were usually products of the networks and advertisers of national products. Of course, the serial format also ensured that the kids would come back, day after day, to see what would happen to their favorite characters. Advertisers made sure that young cereal eaters would want to be a Straight Shooting Cowboy just like Tom Mix, and if they ate Quaker Oats or Tootsie Rolls, they would always get their man like Dick Tracy. Like the Soap Opera, which targeted mothers, the popular Cereal Serials targeted their product at the consumer most likely to want it. Wholesome characters and an uplifting or moral message were always part of the story, but the show's main purpose was to sell the sponsor's product. With remarkably few exceptions, Children's programming from the Golden Radio Era (and into the early Television Age) made little pretense of "educating" kids. Producers and advertisers knew that, even though kids may not make the major purchasing decisions in the home (which is why the housewife is the target audience of the daytime Soap Operas), children and their desires did have a lot of influence on how a family's money got spent. Radio Shows for kids were a natural fit for producers, just like Saturday Morning cartoons during the Television age.
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