When “basic” cultures start to look good
Aug 23, 2002 Parenting
Like the banished folklore tradition, the stories of the mediated world teach developing young humans the ideology of our culture. In the consumer age, children increasingly view personal and social roles, identity, values, and beliefs through the advertising stories which are told around and about the products they purchase. These stories supersaturate our environment using advertisements, television shows, movies, clothing, computer games, food packages, the Internet, and so forth. Although the messages found in these mediums vary according to the product concept, the underlying theme merges to create shared cultural vision: hedonistic consumption and self centered beliefs and goals.
from Kids, Commercialism and Consumption by Linda Coco
The other day Noah and I were in Target looking for white socks; there were several brands to choose from. While I compared prices, Noah made note of the packaging.
“That one looks good,” he said. “It has a bike on it and I like to ride my bike but that one is cooler because there’s a boy on a skateboard.”
I got him the package with the bike because it was cheapest and gave it to Noah to hold. He stared at it for awhile.
“You know, this isn’t as cool but they’re probably pretty cool,” he commented. “These are probably cool socks because of the bike.
“Noah, that’s just packaging,” I said. “All the socks are exactly the same but the packages look different to get you to buy them. It’s a trick.”
“A trick?” he said, shocked. “It has a bike on it because it’s cool like a bike!”
“You see, they tricked you,” I said. “They made you think that these socks are cool and really they’re just socks. You have to watch it when you’re shopping because manufacturers try to trick us all the time.”
Noah was royally pissed to think he’d been had. Since then my critical take on cereal boxes has finally clicked with him.
“Look at that,” he’ll say, shaking his head. “They put Spiderman on that boring old cereal just to try to get me to buy it.”
But you know what? He still wants it. He leans in to look at it and sighs with disappointment. We’ve been looking at television commercials, too, and talking about how entertaining they can be and how they’re so damn tricky.
I hope he’s really getting it. I think I was 17 before I got it; I blame Mtv for my teenage body image crisis. Sheesh.
August 23rd, 2002 at 11:28 pm
I talk to my almost four year old about advertising traps, too. Sadly, like your Noah, she still falls prey to them. I hope she will someday “get it” too.
August 24th, 2002 at 12:19 am
Back when we still watched commercial television, I tried to explain commercials (while watching a Barbie commercial) to my 3 year old, Sally, because I had read that most young children made no distinction between the shows they watched and the commercials. I told her that they weren’t really shows, but made to make her want something. I was proud when she said “Oh!” and obviously understood. Then she said “Okay! It worked! I want it!”
August 24th, 2002 at 12:48 am
We rarely watch TV, but my almost 4 YO can recite commercials. She really wants me to buy some weed whacker. I forget the tag line, but she says it all the time when she’s urging me to buy this weed whacker. ::sigh::
August 24th, 2002 at 2:07 am
Logan and I have this discussion all the time too. He used to say “I want this! I saw it on a ‘mercial” and it drove me absolutely nuts. The really strange part is that we rarely watch TV, especially commercial TV, so it’s all the more stunning to see how powerful the influence of advertising can be even in very limited quantity. He still has trouble grasping the concept that advertisers would actually try to trick people - i.e. LIE - about their products, but he’s catching on. When he spots an advertising trick on his own, I’m always really excited. I wish someone would’ve pointed it out to me at a young age, instead of just later telling me “You can’t have that, it’s too expensive”. I think it’s a great thing to teach kids about consumerism and advertising manipulation.
August 24th, 2002 at 5:03 am
Ah SO interesting. I too speak with kidlet about this b.s. - and we did not have a telly for his first four years of life, but he’d still hear it from other sources-even radio
i heard a funny sharing the other day, a comedian pondering why babies are put on toliet paper packages, “they don’t use it, they don’t know how to use it”…….. Oh isn’t that baby cute, let’s get this package-lol! Oh and then he was going on about buying toliet tissue in bulk at a place such as costco and getting depressed thinking how long he’d be using that! (If you ever want his blog address!)
I love your dialogues with Noah!
August 24th, 2002 at 9:45 am
This is called “media literacy,” and it’s vital to teach it to your kids. I’ve been working on it with Josie for a while now; luckily she doesn’t seem to cue in on commercials for her “wants.” My girl all the way, she seems to pick up most of them from newspaper/magazine ads.