Marketing to Kids
A friend of mine forwarded me this article about a story on NPR earlier this week about how marketing affects kids, even commercials not aimed at them. It discusses just how susceptible kids are to the messages all around them and how difficult it is for parents.
My two-year-old asks for McDonalds. My five-year-old sings "I'm loving it" when we drive by McDonalds. I am thoroughly immersed in the world of marketing aimed at kids.
Before I start my rant against the evils of marketing, I’d like to mention one example of good marketing: Kix cereal has Little Einsteins on it. Little Einsteins is a great show that introduces classical music and world history/geography to kids, and Kix is a healthy cereal. I will happily buy that for them.
But here's the thing that the article failed to mention. Sure, marketing is catchy. Kids do pick up on a lot of things that they needn't. But I've talked to my 5 year old about the fact that all these commercials are made by companies that want to make money, whether you need the product or not. And it's a lesson I repeat at the store. I will buy things if we need them or if it's reasonable (i.e. if I was going to buy some sort of snack fruits for the kids, then I'll let them choose the character), but I do often say no.
Oh, and from early on I've made my five-year-old distinguish between whether he "needs" something or he "wants" it.
So the comment that ‘telling parents to "just say no" to every marketing-related request that they feel is unsafe, unaffordable, unreasonable, or contrary to family values is about as simplistic as telling a drug addict to "just say no" to drugs’ is, in itself pretty simplistic, if not insulting.
Now, teaching the grandparents to occasionally say no to the grandkids (at least when it comes to feeding them McDonald's for the third time in a week) is more challenging...
(Then again, my five-year-old won't eat their French fries because there's too much oil, so he prefers the apple slices, and he barely eats anything else because there's too many chemicals).
The point is, if you notice that your kids are susceptible to brainwashing, counteract it with your own.
My two-year-old asks for McDonalds. My five-year-old sings "I'm loving it" when we drive by McDonalds. I am thoroughly immersed in the world of marketing aimed at kids.
Before I start my rant against the evils of marketing, I’d like to mention one example of good marketing: Kix cereal has Little Einsteins on it. Little Einsteins is a great show that introduces classical music and world history/geography to kids, and Kix is a healthy cereal. I will happily buy that for them.
But here's the thing that the article failed to mention. Sure, marketing is catchy. Kids do pick up on a lot of things that they needn't. But I've talked to my 5 year old about the fact that all these commercials are made by companies that want to make money, whether you need the product or not. And it's a lesson I repeat at the store. I will buy things if we need them or if it's reasonable (i.e. if I was going to buy some sort of snack fruits for the kids, then I'll let them choose the character), but I do often say no.
Oh, and from early on I've made my five-year-old distinguish between whether he "needs" something or he "wants" it.
So the comment that ‘telling parents to "just say no" to every marketing-related request that they feel is unsafe, unaffordable, unreasonable, or contrary to family values is about as simplistic as telling a drug addict to "just say no" to drugs’ is, in itself pretty simplistic, if not insulting.
Now, teaching the grandparents to occasionally say no to the grandkids (at least when it comes to feeding them McDonald's for the third time in a week) is more challenging...
(Then again, my five-year-old won't eat their French fries because there's too much oil, so he prefers the apple slices, and he barely eats anything else because there's too many chemicals).
The point is, if you notice that your kids are susceptible to brainwashing, counteract it with your own.
posted by BrainHickey | 9:24 AM
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