Hands off my kids' brains, bozos!

A woman blogs about how Hummers are trying to market to children-toddlers!-as a way to establish brand loyalty. This is a subject that's been bothering me for a while too. Yesterday I click on the msn homepage and Justin, who was walking by yells out excitedly, "Geico!" Leanna and Justin are both fascinated by the animated Gecco who is their spokesperson. As I've said before, I purposely try to keep their tv viewing as free of commercials as possible. But I lose my powers when Tom comes home and the tv goes on for the night. One of their current favorites-all three kids will stop what they are doing and watch-is the one where at the car dealership where the salespeople all sing, "So long, farewell, al......, goodbye! Adeiu, adeiu, to you and you and you!" (I don't know how to spell the missing german word, sue me) They will sing along with that commercial! It's cute, and that one is fairly harmless. But there are plenty of adds that make things like alchohol seem cool to very young kids. I like the author's idea of having a class be taught in school to help young children understand what advertising is all about and why they can't believe everything they see on tv and billboards, hear on the radio, or even see at school. Advertising is there too.

I like how one woman points out in the comments below, "The funny thing about the quote you included from the article is that it makes it sound like a bad thing for parents to "cede control to the children"! Like, if only we could go back to the good old days when parents only took their own tastes and interests into account! The Hummer is one thing, but choosing a vacation destination based on "indirect influence" (what holiday would the children enjoy/benefit from the most?) - sounds like good parenting to me."