Shriners Hospitals for Children
reviews and complaints

I am appalled at the constant bombardment of TV ads featuring horribly deformed children aired by Shriners Hospital. Exploiting these children is disgusting and indefensible and only alienates the public. It is inexcusable for that outfit to spend tens of millions of dollars on non-stop television ads, and on the salaries of those who produce them, when that money should be spent on the care and treatment of children with birth defects and other congenital deformities.

The boy who continually spouts the sales pitch (which "boy" is probably fifteen or twenty years-old by now) advertising the "adorable" blanket is really nauseating. Young boys don't use the word "adorable" and his pitch is clearly written by adults for adults. Such a scam.

The broadcasters who air this blatant, cheap play for sympathy at the expense of exploited children are equally at fault.

Alright, so let's go back to 92' me. Born some how with Tumors all over my body. Few on my lung. Big enough to collapse the lung. An that actually happened. My lung collapsed. I was rushed to hospital where they had taken my lung out. So when I was a baby. My lung was taken out. After that. I grew up having scoliosis. Because of my body growing. Eventually the other lung grows an pushes my spine over to having a insane degree of angle.. so I grow up all my years in a brace until I'm 15. Going once a month to Shriners hospital in I think Sacramento California for 15 years. After 15 years in a brace. I had to finally get my spine fused, 2 rods placed on either side with a bunch of screws n hooks. Was down for 6 months. After the surgery that meant I didn't have to wear a brace no more. (It went under my shirt so you could barely tell I had one. But it was very hot to use. An uncomfortable). Growing up guess u could say I was silver spooned. We got money. An nice [censored]. Lotta property. Exc. NOT broke. At ALL. But as I was driving home with my dad, I had over heard him talking [censored] to my mom. Sayin "ya when I die" the moneys goin to yada yada.. AND THE REST IS GOING TO SHRINERS. An it flipped a light in my mind. Did my parents lie to me? And tell me Shriners would really COVER ALL EXPENSES.. or are my parents lying, to not make me think I put them in forever debt just to keep me alive..? So I txt my mom saying wtf does that mean. An my mom pretty much said. Shriners was Free. BUT. The catch. Is let's say my whole family was in a plane crash.. basically all the money would go to Shriners an UCSF... So I'm dyin to figure out. If my parents are lying an are low-key in forever debt with Shriners an it's all [censored] about it being "Free". Or is that the catch of things being "free" is by putting Shriners an UCSF in my parents will. In case everyone dies. Then they'd eventually get some money.. I also asked. Well happens when you both die. An it comes time for inheritance. Is Shriners gonna take half of everything we own. An leave us 3 kids with Jack [censored]. Because they didn't wanna tell us that I was a burden on them. Just to keep me alive? Also my dad had "insurance" at the time.. but obviously no mediocre [censored]in hospital like kaiser would be able to do a lung surgery on a infant with a high success rate. Which is why I ended up at Shriners also went to UCDavis. An I found out both of them had to write that up.. so people. What u think. I want the truth.. are my parents secretly paying a forever Debt with this [censored] hospital. An this is what they're doin is making parents sign over everything in they're wills.. then the parents walk around lying to there disabled kid sayin Na everythings fine. It was Free. To make us really think it was free. But in reality the parents aren't stuck with never ending debt.. I pray to God it's not like that... I [censored]in pray... My mom also said.. it's not like they just take everything once they die. Like if both my parents died. She said everything still goes to US kids. EVERYTHING. But she said IF WE ALL 5 of us DIED IN A PLANE CRASH. THENNN EVERYTHING WOULD BE PAID OUT TO SHRINERS N UCSF. No immediate family on my moms side. An my dad's side all's he got left is his brother.. that's what my mom had explained to me. If any other parents in this situation. An have to hide it from their kid. Don't hide it from me. I wanna know what's the deal behind this..

Take alex and caleb off of the comercials surely there are other children that can do these commerical alex and caleb are entirely to old tired of looking at them on tv you all can do better

This commerical of alex and caleb are shown too too many times becomes sicken what about other customers looking at tv seeing the same two adults

Over and over please change and put on different children update your commercial for 2022 not this old stuff

M harley

Like most who have already posted here, their commercials are annoying as F*! I have to change the channel or hit mute everytime they come on and they come on ALOT!

The one kid who sounds like a GD chipmunk needs to go find a new gig. Alec needs to move on and focus on his schooling and put all those donations to good use by being a productive tax paying citizen. Holding up a bear blanket at his age pretending to act like he's a young juvenile is just sickening.

Inhouse commercials or not, I find it interesting that they evidently can't get their parents to advocate for the hospital. The absence of this speaks volumes for me.

If they have so much $ to spend on commercials, maybe they should fire their marketing staff/ agency and start over. Hell, they might do better having these deformed kiddos standing at the street corners with a cardboard sign.

I along with many, many others online are sick of seeing Alec and his adohable blanket, plus besides his baby talk he's an adult and many people find him creepy, especially when you show the fake video call with Caleb, and his high pitched voice and silky coached acting including the salutes turn some away, I will never donate a penny until you change these exploitation commercials! Use other kids who act natural, or Drs or nurses, and I've researched where a lot of donors money goes and most doesn't reach the sick kids and it's said Shriners is worth 5 billion dollars! I prefer to donate to ASPCA, I'm not trying to be mean I know you do help kids but these commercials upset many, many people, do a survey if you don't believe me, anyway I had to let you know this is a hot topic online and almost exclusively express these same feelings, I doubt you'll care or do anything but please prove me wrong..and get that weirdo millionaire Alec off your commercials, use a real child with a normal voice, Caleb is ridiculously embarrassing and obviously coached and used by your ad agency, these adds generate money but also hate so do what you must, I'll never give you a penny

It shocks me how many complaints there are against the commercials the children appear in. I think the idea of exploitation is a bit much; I am surprised at how small minded these comments sound. These children, all the children who are helped have the right to be seen and to speak for themselves and other kids we don't see. We MUST SEE the bodies of children who did nothing more than being born with something missing. Those commercials show children in action, living life like a normal child. We must also be shown the possibilities of what science and technology can do "for the least if these." My final comment is to those who see negativity in these short stories... Get a Grip. Get over YOURSELF. In this case... It's not about You...

@wine is good I get where you are coming from @wine is good and I don't believe that there are any decent individuals amongst those who have shared the same sense of animosity towards this commerical who wouldn't agree on the necessity of the funding and awareness when it comes to medical and non-medical programs that provide assistance to children, and adults for that matter, who suffers from uncontrollable disabilities. Personally, I think there needs to be a much higher level of public awareness towards programs such as shriners hospital.

I speak for myself here and it is not my intention to put words in any mouths other than my own. That being said, I think there is a line in the sand with any topic or scenario regardless of intent. That line was obviously pushed way farther than what it morally acceptable. Money or lack of funding is no excuse to shove these children into the spotlight and ask them to essentially exploit themselves on national television in the efforts of paying for the care they deserve in the first place. It's as if shriners hospital is putting them to work to pay off the costs they are incurring. Blunt words, I know; however, it is very obvious that shriners is banking on human kindness as a result of thesheer pity and utter discomfort viewers feel when they watch this commerical... Or better termed, infomercial.

Do I feel bad for those kids, yes. Do I want them to receive the best care possible, of course. But please shriners hospital, where is your class and dignity? It is not ok to turn the images of the children you serve into a marketing ploy. Even the humane society portrays their animals in a more tasteful form then shriners hospital does their patients.

I have actually changed the channel or physically left the room more times than I have sat through that horrible commercial. The point of advertising is to create a level of interest and care to invoke the overall goal of, in this case, raising money to help these poor kids. Please stop showing them off as if they are your prize pumpkins at the fair. Act like a professional medical and research foundation should... Please.

On a more serious note, please help in any way possible so the quality of life of those children can be set at a much higher level.

Nico

P.S. Again, I speak for myself and apologize if I offended anyone.