Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Buy, Buy, Baby

Do you know How Consumer Culture Manipulates Parents and Harms Young Minds? This is the subtitle to the book listed above. Susan Gregory Thomas tells a great story (listen to the NPR interview). She explores the many ways children are targeted, especially through the use of "educational" TV shows and the use of licensed characters throughout nearly every area of a child's life.
Many points struck throughout the book. Here are some particularly telling quotes:

  • "But in the late 1970's and early 1980's... the chief point of connection between parents, children, and toys was no longer in playing together: it was in buying something." pg. 57
  • "Because Wal-Mart wields such enormous buying power... it may be edging into the uniquely advantageous position of single-handedly shaping the marketing and selling of children's books in the United States." pg. 176
  • '"The only time a child drives a book purchase is when the book features a licensed character," one publishing executive explains. 'pg. 177 (Really the only time a child0-3 drives a sale for any product is when it features a character.)
Children are at the cornerstone of "cradle to grave" marketing, thus the attention-grabbing shows thrown all around our culture, i.e. Baby Einstein, Dora the Explorer, Blues Clues, anything Disney, etc. Sadly, it does not seem there is strong evidence to give the label of "educational" to most any of these shows. Yet, this label is given because it has proven to help create a growing market for corporations mentioned below, among others. Children under the age of two have been shown to only gain character recognition from these "educational shows" they watch. But this is perfect if you are a marketer. Kids want your product without even knowing what your product is. This concept is explored thoroughly throughout the book.

Disney, Kellogg's, Gatorade, McDonald's and others all use a company called Cover Concepts (link to their "free" material, including a Bubbalicious teacher guide- how healthy) to "help" give away "free" curriculum to cash-strapped preschools. This free stuff is ADVERTISING! in a bad way.

But terribly, "the marketing industries goals' are to mirror back to people not who they actually are but who they would like to be, to confirm that their ideas are the right ideas, and to instill a sense that every problem has a simple solution." (pg. 222) This simple solution is to BUY their product, no matter what it may be. Every question has an answer of buy, no other. Where does this leave us?

It seems we must take it upon ourselves to find a way to escape this all-encompassing trap. The last quote of the book left me with a tear in my eye. Here is the passage:

Teresa Acevedo, a director of aTucson-area Head Start program remarked, "I don't know when or why we accepted the idea that educational experiences have to come from a catalog!" She clicked to the next slide depicting the center's stunning desert surroundings. "We weren't even taking advantage of, or paying attention to, the natural beauty around us," she said. Then there appeared a picture of children playing as the afternoon sun sliced through, thick, cottony clouds. "But then," she said, "we went outside."

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