Poll: advertising @ kids

[nohorsetown]

So, I was, uh, inspired, I guess.. by the thread about the "Silly Bandz" game, which is a DS game based off of some gimmicky little, uh.. wait, what are they, rubber bands? (Yeah, they're rubber bands!) Oh. So, they've got, like, shapes and stuff, right? (Hell yeah they do!! They're freakin' *crazy* bandz!! With a "Z"!! These aren't your dad's rubber bands!! They got shapes! Collect 'em all! FUN!!)

..yeah, anyway, what with being a parent and all, it made me think about kids' stuff in general, and by stuff I mean toys and cartoons and wacky-shaped foods and shit. It's nothing new.. when I was a kid, Saturday morning cartoons were full of ads for all kindsa garbage, and I knew that then. Thing is, advertising works. Even when you don't think it does. I didn't fall prey to most of its lures, but as I've gotten older and observed people and had a kid of my own HOLY SHIT that shit works like wildfire. You know the scene: kid in a department store, whining and yelling for some dumb fad-toy, and the poor, frazzled parent just can't imagine how they got themselves into this one and they give in.. (yeah, bad parenting abounds, but I'm going somewhere else with this

What if it were, like.. *illegal*.. to advertise to kids? Omigod, freedom of speech, yeah, I know.. but are kids competent decision-makers? When it comes to booze and driving and sex and drugs and everything else, we all tend to agree that they're not fully-formed humans. But it's cool to prey on their impressionable little minds, as long as we're just trying to get them obsessed with Hannah Montana or Bratz dolls or fucking overpriced rubber bands. Because that's just making a buck. Making a buck is always a good thing!

Do kids have to be "consumers"? Obviously, *I* hate the idea, but I'm not just looking for sympathy. Tell me how awesome your ad-filled childhood was, and how it genuinely sparked your interest in bold new vistas of wondrous adventure.

Is advertising acceptable only at a certain age? Not for toddlers, but OK for teenagers? PG? Y-7?

What about religion? Is it cool to "advertise" religion at your kids, when they probably can't comprehend it? Can they comprehend it? What's to comprehend? Is it all about a big loving god who'll always support you, or is there more grit to it? If a kid gets sold on the happy stuff at an early age, is that a "gateway drug" for the heavier religion later on?

Sorry if that was a "wall of text". So, uh, discuss?

 

[tomtom94]

Yep, kids are morons. Best to try and let them make their own mistakes with toys, because toys won't screw up their long-term future.

With junk food though I dislike the concept of that being advertised to kids.

As for religion...don't even TRY opening that can of worms.

 

[manic_depressive13]

I didn't respond to advertising when I was a kid because I was taught not to trust it, and I was a good girl. Not to mention the ads sucked and the stuff they were trying to make to look super-cool were quite obviously pieces of junk, and I could see that even from a young age. I don't really care about advertising to children. If you're too stupid to teach your kids not to fall for that crap, then too incompetent to be able to say 'no' to them, then that's your own damn fault as far as I'm concerned. Maybe you should have thought twice about having them.

As for religion, yes I think it's wrong but I won't go into a rant here. When it's coming from the parents that's a different matter altogether, anyway. I'll just say that for a while, at the small shopping centre near my house, there was a giant billboard saying "THE BIBLE. A TEXT MESSAGE FROM GOD!" Which was such an obvious pitch to the teenage market that it was pathetic. As an Atheist I thought it was just stupid, because it's not as if someone is going to change their religious beliefs based on a sign (no pun). I think I'd be far more offended if I were religious because it takes away from the religion by just turning it into a "brand", so to speak. Which it is, of course, but if I were religious I wouldn't want to advertise it.

 

[nohorsetown]

I think I'd be far more offended if I were religious because it takes away from the religion by just turning it into a "brand", so to speak. Which it is, of course, but if I were religious I wouldn't want to advertise it.

Yeah, that gets to me a lot. I'm not religious anymore myself, but I was raised as a sort of offbeat christian, and I got a pretty good view of the whole thing selling out. It was already pretty bad when I went to church in the early-mid 90s.. gift shops and christian rock and "hip" youth ministry.. thinking back, I guess my main impression of it was as a "brand", from my first exposure to church. It was weird, because I was very idealistic about God and Jesus and the whole deal: my dad and I had been doing the christian thing for a year or so before we decided to try out the churches. I found the experience to be really shallow/plastic, and to his credit, he totally agreed with/listened to me, and we stopped going pretty quick-like (tho I know he missed out on some 'fellowship', prolly mostly with single christian babes).

I guess, if I look at it honestly, my dad definitely advertised christianity towards/on me when I was a kiddo. I don't feel like I was ever brainwashed, but was it because of some exceptional quality of mine, or chance, or are kids just not as malleable as we think? I know that he certainly tried, and pulled some fearmongering bullshit he shouldn't have. Did he really want to save my soul, or was he advertising to make emotional profit for himself?

Yeah, religion is a scary subject(??), and I guess if I talk about it much more then I've placed this thread in the wrong forum, but isn't it a lot like advertising? Isn't it usually a "brand"? Honestly, out of all the religious people in the "first world".. and there's tons of 'em.. how many take their religion seriously, personally, all the time? How many think about it every day, meditate on their core beliefs? It's supposed to be about life and death, right and wrong.. the big stuff. But I think it's more like brand loyalty, "go team".. basically brands competing for market share, the way it plays out. At least that was my experience, and from what I've seen since as an outsider, it's only gotten worse.

My daughter was ostracized by two girls at school.. disallowed from participating in whatever stupid recess activity they had goin' on.. because she doesn't believe in god (Bad move, Sophie! You shouldn't have told them! I taught you to lie better than that!). These are 7-year olds, and 90% of the time they're obsessed with sexed-out teen bullshit, but they're Team Christian. They can't tell one advertisement from another, even when the content is in direct opposition. They're young.

A few days later, they forgot the whole thing, and everyone's friends again. Sweet, malicious, stupid kids! But what seeps through? What influences are gonna shape their adult selves? Whether it's teeny-slutwave or holy rollin' what comes out on top (or quite possibly a freakish combination of both, or maybe neither), it seems to me like someone's got an agenda, and someone doesn't really give a fuck about these girls' actual goddamn free will.

Hey, I ranted forever again. Aw shit, look at the time. Thanks for responding, ye few. Am I making any sense with the religion/advertising thing? Seems like it might be a bit of a stretch. Peace out.

 

[tigermilk]

I am off the attitude advertising is evil (a mix of french psychoanalsysis, marxism and not being allowed to watch ad's for kids stuff as a kid led me to this) advertising to children even more so. Most countrries don't "really" have free speech and there are a number of limitations (in the UK) at least about what can be said in adverts. I would be very happy to see this extend to a ban on advertising of childrens products and advertising to children (based on products and times adverts are shown).

While I was pushed towards avoiding adverts I am (like I imagine most if not all people) not "immune" to adverts, but I am off an age where I can critically engage with ideas and endevour to make relatively intelligent opinions based upon this. On the whole my opinion is to avoid adverts where possible among other paths of resistance which I imagine in part is due to the foundation stones in childhood of being very poor, being encouraged to avoid TV adverts for kids stuff and being pushed towards a left wing outlook on life.

To the OP I hope you find a healthy balance and don't feel to emasculated (but healthily outraged and indignant) about the advertisers who lie to your child try to make them feel they are somehow lacking if they don't have toy X or sweets Y.

 

[tigermilk]

"THE BIBLE. A TEXT MESSAGE FROM GOD!"

This is also innacurate, as anyone who has read the bible or has the most rudimentary understanding of it knows the Bible doesn't claim to be directly the word of God (I assume thats what the advert infers) but written by a number of disciples from different points in history. Having said that it has all the coherency of the average text if not the succinctness.

 

[BonsaiK]

I think advertising at kids is fine. If the kids then badger the parents into buying some dumb shit, and they do it, whose fault is that? When I was a kid I didn't have any of the popular toys of the day that were rammed down my throat on TV (Transformers, Masters Of The Universe etc) because my single-factory-income family was broke as shit. My parents just said no to my stupid "I want an Optimus Prime" bitching and I learned to grow up fast.

As far as religion goes, my parents gave me a children's bible (with rad pictures), some science books, Aesop's fables and a bunch of greek/roman/egyptian mythology books and said "happy reading". I won't tell you what I eventually chose but I certainly was grateful that my parents saw fit to credit me with some intelligence of my own rather than direct me toward anything in particular just because it happened to be their belief.

Nowadays I don't even watch TV so I have no idea what people are being pushed. I didn't even know about pop-culture phenomenons like Twilight until The Escapist alerted me to it through endless hate-threads (yes, you guys are to blame for me actually knowing what it is, pat yourselves on the back). I guess I live a pretty weird lifestyle. On top of that I'll never have children so I guess the issue of advertising to kids doesn't affect me much as I don't see the ads or the kids affected by them. If nothing else I think if kids were the consumers it would be good - maybe kids will get this stuff, feel ripped off when it broke/was shit/whatever, and they can learn how not to make irresponsible monetary decisions that way or something. I dunno...

 

[moretimethansense]

"THE BIBLE. A TEXT MESSAGE FROM GOD!"

This is also innacurate, as anyone who has read the bible or has the most rudimentary understanding of it knows the Bible doesn't claim to be directly the word of God (I assume thats what the advert infers) but written by a number of disciples from different points in history. Having said that it has all the coherency of the average text if not the succinctness.

Unfortunatly there are those that seem to think that the bible is in fact the infalible word of god taken directly from his lips and if questioned on this they point to it and say "the bible says so and the bible is never wrong because the bible says that it's never wrong"
See FSTDT to see some truely mind shatteringly stupid examples of this.

OT: It's not so much THAT they advertise to kids as HOW they do it,
Usually implying somthing like you're freinds won't like you if you don't have one or your parents don't love you after all if they did they'd get you one.

also why is it that every childerens ad has these smirking little shits yhey use to advertise even the most mundane toy, I mean really?
have you ever met someone that smile so much over a yo-yo or even a ball(a fucking ball!?) without being completly out of their kite on drugs?

 

[Mechsoap]

most the advertising for kids is pretty bad, its flashy colours and gimmicky stuff i wish never was invented. and yes some kids just scream at the advertising to get it.

so my opinion is clear and it should be banned

 

[Rakkana]

They need the parents to buy it for them(most of the time) anyway. So unless the advert says, "Go hassle your mum till they buy it for you," I have no problem with it.

"THE BIBLE. A TEXT MESSAGE FROM GOD!"

This is also innacurate, as anyone who has read the bible or has the most rudimentary understanding of it knows the Bible doesn't claim to be directly the word of God (I assume thats what the advert infers) but written by a number of disciples from different points in history. Having said that it has all the coherency of the average text if not the succinctness.

You have no idea how many Christians I've met who also get this wrong. It's one of the main reasons I can't stand most other Christians(being one myself.)