From fairytales to violence: SouthFlorida.com

How advertising is shaping our children.

"Princess cereal, Mommy! I want the princess cereal! Wah! Gimme, gimmie, want, want, have to have it because it tastes better than all the rest!"
Sound familiar? OK, it may be a tiny bit of an exaggeration (or maybe not), but you get the picture. You get it because you have been through it. Trust me; so have I.
What is it that makes the princess cereal or Spider-Man macaroni taste better than all the rest? It's the amount of marketing dollars that was put into brainwashing your child into believing it.
Multinational companies intentionally encourage children to be materialistic so they begin to associate happiness with the possession of particular goods. Children begin to think that things taste better if there is a certain brand or character attached to the product. They also start to feel that they need these things in order to be cool.
Selling toys and other products to children through TV programs and movies was not allowed in the U.S. until 1984. It was then that the Federal Communications Commission deregulated children's television. The fundamental problem with deregulation is that it led to a commercial explosion aimed at kids. Once companies could sell toys to children through shows, the door was open for them to create "feature-length commercials" to sell their associated products. Star Wars, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers and Pirates of the Caribbean are just a few of the 20-pound gorillas that come to mind.
Consider the new Transformers movie, "Revenge of the Fallen." The film is rated PG-13 for "intense sequences of sci-fi action violence, language, some crude and sexual material, and brief drug material" by the Motion Picture Association of America. However, it was still marketed extensively to children as young as 3 through toys, food promotions and advertising on children's television programming. The age recommendation of these toys leads one to believe that the movie is geared toward young children -- and this is clearly not the case.

Believe it or not, it is estimated that by the end of elementary school, children will have seen 8,000 murders and 100,000 other acts of violence on the screen -- much of it glamorized. Unfortunately, children often infuse the content that they see, including violence and sexuality, into their play. They also learn to use violence to express feelings and to solve problems, sometimes failing to understand that violence hurts and kills people.

When kids spend a lot of time in front of TV, iPods, computer games and the Internet, it starts to affect their behavior and expectations. The bottom line is that as our children's screen time increases, they are becoming more violent, less active and less creative. So how can we minimize the affect of media and advertising on our children?

Filter what your children watch. Try to plan in advance what programs will be watched. Select programs designed to promote children's positive development and learning (for instance, those on public television). Limit viewing of violent and other noneducational programming as much as possible.
Limit their amount of screen time. Keeping TVs and computers out of your child's bedroom and in a public area is a great place to start. You can also set a good example by limiting the type and amount of TV you watch.
Control the toys and other media-related paraphernalia (including cereal) that enter your home. Try not to buy products directly linked to violent TV shows or that are advertised heavily during violent programs. When children do have time to play, highly realistic, media-linked toys often channel them into imitating what they saw on TV. This inhibits them from challenging their minds and developing play through their own imaginations. Creative play is the foundation for a child's critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Therefore, it is important to choose toys that promote creativity, can be played with in many ways and will stay interesting over a period of time.
Let your kids explore without forcing society's pre-fabricated stereotypes on them. Media also affects our children's developing ideas on stereotypes and gender. The toys marketed to boys are typically rough and violent, and toys marketed to girls are pink and showcase princesses or fairies. This is guiding our children into preconceived roles. If your boy wants to play dolls or your girl wants to play with monster trucks, let them be.
Encourage outdoor and creative play. Screen time is typically a passive indoor activity. This means that less time is being spent partaking in physical exercise and outdoors in nature. Instead of getting into the habit of watching TV, help your child engage in other activities such as riding a bike, playing ball, building with blocks, reading and writing stories, doing art projects or puzzles, and playing games.
Educate yourselves and others -- including your children -- about the concerns you have regarding media, stereotyping, violence, etc. Talk to your children about what they are seeing on TV. This would include topics such as fiction versus reality, solving conflicts without using violence and what they did or did not like about a show.

Children are children. Despite the increased sophistication of modern persuasion, they are still the same innocent and na�ve children we brought into the world. It's our job as parents to help them to overcome the many challenges that commercial culture has created. For more information on this topic, check out www.commercialfreechildhood.org.

Related books on the topic include:

Advertising to Children: Concepts and Controversies, by M . Carole Macklin and Les Carlson

Children as Consumers: Insights and Implications, by James U. McNeal

Harvesting Minds: How TV Commercials Control Kids, by Roy F. Fox

Children and Advertising: The allegations and the evidence, by Adrian Furnham

Born To Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture, by Juliet B. Schor

Consuming Kids: Protecting Our Children from the Onslaught of Marketing and Advertising, by Susan Linn