"Consuming Kids" is probably one of the more eye-opening books I've read in my life. Exposing the "cradle to grave" mentality of advertisers trying to create brand loyalty, this book has made me much more aware and critical as a parent. The author literally takes the reader inside the advertising industry with a visit to a marketing conference and a discussion of the tactics used by advertisers ("The Nag Factor", "Pester Power", parental guilt, buzzwords, etc)
The author paints a clear picture for us of just how much effort is being expended in trying to attract our kids and hold onto them for life. Addressing the issues of branding, in-school marketing, food marketing, violence, sexualization of children, alcohol and tobacco, values, and the matter of the First Amendment, this is a very thorough book and is loaded with invaluable information.
Some of the points in the book really stood out to me and have had immediate effects on my family:
- Giving a baby or toddler branded toys, books and nurseries gets them familiar with characters and logos even before they can speak. You might think it's just a toy - but when you take that child into the supermarket and they see their little friend on a box, they're going to want that box. (Similar to the effect of Imprinting)
- There is little proof of the benefit of screen time for babies. Most experts say to keep babies and toddlers away from the TV until they're at least two years old. Yet there is a proliferation of videos, tv shows, software and video games out there targeted at babies and toddlers. And marketers use the guilt factor to make us buy them - because we are afraid that our babies will somehow be deprived if they don't get that early exposure.
- Electronic toys are taking over and not leaving room for kids to just play and imagine. Character dolls come with their own set of personality traits, their own voices, and their own history. There's nothing left to make up.
"Play thrives in environments that provide children with safe boundaries but do not impinge on their ability to think and act spontaneously. It is nurtured with opportunities for silence. For children who are flooded continually with stimuli and commands to react, the cost is high. They have fewer opportunities to learn to initiate action or to influence the world they inhabit, and less chance to exercise the essential trait of human creativity."
"There's some unintentional irony in the fact that so many toyda today are labeled "educational." The best toys are inherently educational in that they serve as tools for helping children actively explore, undetand, and/or gain mastery over the world...they are simple enough to be put to many different uses, and to become different things in a child's imagination."
- Marketing in schools varies from "Channel One" (a TV channel broadcasting ads and news into schools) to using sponsorship of products as simple as milk to promote CDs.
- Food marketing is everywhere, from TV ads to billboards to radio ads, right down to children's toys like a play-doh McDonald's set and video games featuring candy and chocolate. Packaging features characters from children's favorite programs. But it's all packaged food, convenience food and fast food, which are contributing to the obesity epidemic in North America.
- Girls are reaching the start of puberty earlier all the time (average 9-10 years old now). In the midst of the confusion associated with these changes, they are being flooded with media images that sexualize young girls, deny modesty, and dismiss morality completely. Provocative phrases printed on t-shirt and underpants, belly shirts, low-cut pants, short-shorts and miniskirts are being marketed to children now, because marketers want us to believe our kids want to look like the "pop idols" they themselves are pushing.
- Even "public" television, while it might be less commercial than the other stations, is still filled with commercial content - program sponsors, embedded products, and so on. So you still need to be aware of what your child is seeing, even on a station that is supposedly "commercial free". The sponsorship connections between favorite programs and fast-food chains are hard and fast and none too subtle.
- Advertisers try to make us believe that our kids are just naturally growing up faster, while at the same time they are preying on kids' desires to be like their older siblings. One example: marketing suggestive clothing and cosmetic products to 6-year-old girls because supposedly they really want to be like teens.
To close:
"In the long run, our children's immersion in this commercial culture has implications that go far beyond what they buy or don't buy. Marketing is designed to influence more than food preferences and choices of clothing. It aims to affect core values such as lifestule choices: how we define happiness and how we measure our self-worth. Meanwhile, they very traits that today's marketing encourages - materialism, impulsivity, entitlement, and unexamined brand loyalty - are antithetical to those qualities necessary in a healthy democratic citizenry. Instead of being a mainstay of American life, intensive advertising to children may be eroding its foundations."
"When children are unprotected in the marketplace, they become commodities to be bought, sold or traded to facilitate profit. Unfettered commercialism strips children of their value and their values. In that sense it is as much a threat to religion and democracy as Soviet-style communism ever was."
I consider this another "must-read" book for parents, teachers and caregivers. What we don't know can hurt us. And our kids.
You won't likely find this new anymore, but you can find used copies on Amazon and on ThriftBooks, or try your local library!
