January 2007
Viewpoint: What’s So Bad About Ronald McDonald?
Strangers are targeting your child. Not with weapons, thank God, but with media messages designed to make them beg, whine and cry until you finally break down and buy yet another piece of crap. Excuse my French, but that’s the technical word for most of the toys, electronics, candy and “food” being sold to children.
In college, I was part of a student team working on a media-buying
plan for McDonald’s®. Our research turned up the fact that in
households with children ages 2 to 8, it’s predominately the children
who make the decision about which restaurants their families frequent.
At the time Ronald McDonald was a more recognizable personage for this
age group than Santa Claus. We could never determine whether advertising
was the cause or effect of this phenomenon, but I just can’t imagine
that young children had a lot of say in restaurant decisions during previous
generations. Twenty years later, the ability of marketers to reach our
children has only increased. A recent Dutch study that appeared in the
Journal of Applied Development Psychology found that children as young
as 2 could recognize popular brand logos such as M&M’s®,
Duplos, Nike and even Camel cigarettes.
And just as we move heaven and earth to protect our children from those
who would target them in other ways, it behooves us to take measures to
protect them from these marksmen as well.
It’s primarily – but not entirely – television advertising that we’re talking about here. We’re all aware of the staggering statistics about how much TV American children watch. Our children are being bombarded by dozens of commercial messages a day, hundreds a week, tens of thousands a year. (And don’t be deluded into thinking that PBS is safe: Its programming is rife with subtle commercial come-ons and merchandising tie-ins.) These commercial messages aren’t just index cards posted on a community bulletin board. These are pitches employing the most powerfully persuasive techniques known, and they are targeted directly at your child.
Of course, your child has no money of his own; he can’t take himself to the store or restaurant. No, these marketing geniuses realize that they must rely on our little ones to “persuade” their parents. Children are no less marketing geniuses, tending to eschew high tech methods in favor of the old school techniques of persistent pleading, sulking and tantrums. And even when we parents manage to resist their rhetorical efforts, things generally wind up with children feeling denied and parents feeling – at least a little – like mean-spirited ogres.
Curse you, Madison Avenue.
Avoiding TV altogether is, of course, the best solution, but abstinence is not realistic for most of us. This is why we need advertising prophylactics.
Control the Remote Control
A responsible adult should control the television, as they would any narcotic substance. Even as your child grows older and can operate the TV herself, she should be expected to ask permission before watching. As I see it, it’s a fundamental responsibility of American parents to closely monitor what and how much their children watch.
Watch and Talk
Watch TV with your child as much as possible. Not only do most children enjoy the companionship, but also this puts you in the room with those who will target your child – and as powerful as they are, you are more powerful. I know you have phone calls to make and floors to mop, but there are many chores (folding laundry, ironing, filing, personal grooming, even exercise) you can do while you watch with your child. You will be role modeling “active” behavior and you will be there to talk during – and even over – the commercials.
Make Your Child Advertising Savvy
My daughter Josephine has become a master at deconstructing the automobile and beer commercials that target me during sports broadcasts. Now 9 years old, she’s learned to guffaw at the notion that pretty girls will like a man for drinking a certain beer. She recognizes when cars are shown performing impossible feats of speed or agility. She struggles more when it’s a commercial targeted at her, but she’s getting the hang of it. She said the other day, “That won’t really make me more popular.”
If your child is aware of any brand at all (Disney Princesses, McDonald’s®, Power Rangers), she’s ready for your own home school media curriculum. Children need to understand that advertisements are created by people who are trying to get us to either buy something or do something. It’s a fun game to dissect a commercial message: Who is trying to persuade us? Why? What do they want us to do? How are they trying to get us to do it? What do they take us for – fools?
For very young children, the game might just be to play “spot the commercial.” It can be difficult for a 3-year-old to distinguish between the sales pitch and the “entertainment,” especially since the line is increasingly and intentionally blurred, but it’s an important media skill to learn.
Try covering your ears during a commercial, then talk about how it makes you feel with and without sound. This can be a great example of how advertisers try to manipulate our emotions through music and sound effects. How do certain commercials make us feel, and why do its creators want us to feel that way?
Commercials often boast about taste tests and other comparison surveys that prove their products are the best. Why take their word for it? Do your own taste tests. Make it even more fun by involving friends. Does the heavily advertised brand really taste better than generic? It’s not something most of us can afford on a regular basis, but I’ve occasionally purchased an advertised product that Josephine wants simply for the purpose of demonstrating that it’s a piece of crap. A less expensive method is to point out advertised products while shopping. How does the actual product compare to the advertisement? Examine the label (especially if it’s food) and the packaging. What did the commercial leave out? Where did the commercial exaggerate? Do you feel the same way about the product in your hand as you did about the one on TV? Why?
Young children can often become confused about what is real and what is make-believe on television. Talk about whether what is happening on the screen could happen in the real world.
Other Ways Advertisers Target Your Child
While television commercials remain the number one concern,
advertisers are also taking aim at your child through the print media
(e.g., magazines, comics), point-of-purchase (e.g., those eye-catching
cardboard displays at the ends of aisles in toy stores), merchandising
(e.g., product logos on lunch boxes, tie-ins with Scholastic Books), radio
(e.g., Radio Disney), sponsorships (e.g., Petco sponsored field trips,
corporate naming rights to high school gyms), and, increasingly, via the
Internet.
In some ways, the marketers targeting your child online are more frightening
than those on television. It’s hard to hang over your child’s
shoulder as he does research for a school paper or e-mails with friends.
Surfing the net is, by its nature, a solitary activity and even “safe”
sites tend to be choc-a-block with sales pitches. Most are of the overt
nature, like straightforward banner ads – the kinds we can most
easily inoculate our children against – but many are far more insidious.
For instance, a recent Kaiser Family Foundation study of 82 major food brands found more than 500 “advergames” targeted to children. These “advergames” are game-like entertainments for children that are based upon products such as Pop Tarts®, Oreos and Burger King®. The study found that 12.2 million children between the ages of 2 and 11 visited these sites during their three-month study period.
Lest you’ve missed it, my personal belief is that targeting children with advertising messages is unethical. I have begun writing e-mails to companies that I find the most offensive. There are some who would have it be illegal altogether, especially when it comes to the promotion of junk food. I won’t go that far, but that doesn’t mean we can’t use our consumer power to pressure companies.
The real battleground, however, is in your living room. This is where these strangers find our children, stoking the flames of unattainable desires in their little souls with their slick, deceptive messages.
Those of us who are currently parents of young children are the first generation to live our entire lives as targets. We don’t know life any other way. Some of us have made our peace with it, while others, like me, are still trying to figure out what it all means. Whatever the case, it’s pretty certain that advertisers will continue to step up efforts to target our children with junky toys and junky food. And we, seasoned veterans that we are, like it or not, have the job of teaching our children how to sort through the crap.
Excuse my French.
Tom Hobson teaches at the
Woodland Park Cooperative Preschool in Seattle.
©2007
Seattle's Child, a publication of the Washington Post Company
All rights reserved
Web design by Intentional Publishing & Design