You remember Joe Camel. That anthropomorphic camel featured in Camel cigarette ads in the 80’s. The self-described “smooth character” was featured in fun and fresh situations in various ad pieces that were criticized for targeting children. RJR voluntarily drop the ads under pressure from Congress and public interest groups.

I can’t help but see similarities between Joe Camel and the recent Disney release of (Buzz) Lightyear which features a same-sex kiss. I doubt anyone would disagree that what Disney is doing here is targeting (or grooming) children. It is clearly there to build acceptance for same-sex attraction. The issue whether same-sex attraction is acceptable in our culture is not even the issue here. Smoking was and is an accepted habit from the days of Joe Camel until now, but it was seen as an “adult’ habit that should not be pushed on children in their formative years. Don’t we still care about this?

Most parents go to the movies for entertainment not to see a PSA for the LBGT community. Is it too far out of bounds to say animated children’s movies should be worldview neutral and not the place to pick the winners for the culture wars.

Let’s let children be children.

To those that would say, “Quit making a mountain out of a mole hill,” I would remind you how sensitive we were over how cool an animated camel smoking looked to kids and that Juul just had fruit-flavored vapes banned because of a surge in youth-vaping. How many people who approve of Disney putting this scene in the movie would have lost their minds if Buzz Lightyear would have smoked a camel and what does that say about us?