Was a time when kids enjoyed their milk fortified wit the latest new chocolate mix as much as they enjoyed the ads advertizing great taste or energy. Today, they're thinking about which drink their parents money should buy to oust the neighboring kids on their street. The sole purpose of the after-school afternoon drink seems to be a means of getting out there and proving they're better than the next kid on the block.
What are these ads selling? To the 8 to 15 year old age group? Not good health, vigor. Instead rivalry, one-upmanship and an unhealthy competition. Bad enough, such messages make little boys and girls constantly on the alert to come out on top of even lazy afternoon street games. What's worse, they begin to believe winning is the only way to go. Did the ad agencies and health drink companies forget there can only be one winner - in any game, in any sport? And not all their target audience can be that one winner? What happens to the psyche of those kids who come in second, or third or simply, by nature, have no inclination to sport or win at all? Perhaps marginalised, though subtly and unconsciously, because thats how the ads strike - if you're not a winner, you can't just be. With television such an invasive medium, little surprise this.
There are forums to take objectionable ads to women to court (that is a subject for another day). High time there were the same for kids.
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2 comments:
Neat! So you're on the blogosphere too.
Your blog is wrestling with something that runs so frighteningly deep. It is the core value of modern civilization as we have been schooled to define it.
You are going to dig this blog.
http://www.medialens.org/
cogitations/061201_dangerous_minds.php
Jay..? OMG..read this blog and ne'er were truer words said than,
"In organisations for which profit-seeking, say, is the bottom line - the equivalent of the wooden framework - facts, ideas, values, policies and individuals are naturally selected that fit the structure, that act in structure-supportive ways, and that do not challenge the founding framework."
Looks to me, organizations also mean the street we live in, the apartments around us, the lunch group we chat with, etc. etc.. Seems like any group people form are just extensions of the organizations that expect certain conformist behavior.. If parents are watching health ads and meeting at a PTA, guess what they'll be chatting about??!!
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