Teletubbies: The gateway drug to consumerism?

I have written in the past about the ethics of marketing junk food (or anything else, for that matter) to kids, and my dismay as a parent that simple, educational books like the Spot series have metastasized into consumer-goods empires.  Here is an article about the (lack of) educational merits of Teletubbies, and the dangerous ground PBS began to tread when it decided to take on a heavily-marketed, non-educational show targeted at preverbal children.  I know Teletubbies is old news by now, and I'm sure things have evolved since this article was written, but the questions it raises seem to me to be still pertinent.