Kid Kustomers

       The typical child spends twenty one hours a week watching television, roughly thirty thousand TV commercials a year, and one quarter of kids between the ages two and five have a television in their room. However, it was not until the resent past that advertising pressure on kid sky-rocketed. Before the 1980’s the concept of kids as “surrogate salesmen” was unconceived, today extensive studies are applied to the child consumer. They are encouraged through clubs and groups sponsored by large corporations to reveal names, zip codes, addresses, and personal preferences. They are targeted, starting at the age of two, by twenty four seven advertising, with the goal of creating brand recognition on the same level as family members.

       In a world where children spend more time watching a screen then being engaged in any other activity, the results of advertisement targeting can be devastating. Instead of using our new instates into how the developing brain works to expand its potential, large corporations are creating ideal consumers, essentially cults for their companies. The extensive studies on how and what children dream about are being applied to keep kids suckling at the teat of large corporations from “cradle-to-grave”.

       Michael Pertschuk said, “They cannot protect themselves against adults who exploit their present mindedness” If this is true then it is up to us to give them a fighting chance. Parents, not fuzzy animal logos and smiling cartoon characters must once again become the center role-models for our nation’s children. Allowing big business to raise kids will degrade family values by not allowing time for them to prosper. Children must have a fighting chance to become critical consumers or they will grow up to financial ruin, snubbed by the fallacy in and idealist tones of advertizing.