Underoos: Possibly inappropriate. Mildly exploitative. Creepy, even?

I mentioned underoos in class last week, and it turns out that none of my students are aware of the matching top-and-bottom underwear featuring superheroes, Star Wars characters and other heroic characters that dominated so much of my childhood.

Underoos were so ubiquitous when I was a kid that I assumed they still exist today, so I went to the Internet in hopes of showing my students an underoos commercial from the 1980’s as a means of defining this product. But when I started watching the commercials on YouTube, I couldn’t help but think that they were at least mildly inappropriate and possible exploitative to the children appearing in them. 

Not to mention that the production values of the commercials are horrific. 

Perhaps I was overreacting, but I can’t believe that these commercials were on television when I as a kid. Little kids in little, form fitting underwear dancing all over the screen? And why the hell are little girls wearing bra-like tops?

Am I overreacting? Would these commercials be permitted to air on television today? Do you find them as creepy as I do? 

Before watching, it should also be noted that this is not the first time underoos have been mentioned on this blog. Almost exactly a year ago, I became aware of the existence of adult underoos and wrote about them as well.