Cross posted at PhD in Parenting. 

I want that

I need that

I like that

I want it

I want that

I want this

That is what the chorus was starting to sound like at our house a few weeks ago. Our kids used to only watch Treehouse (advertising free educational kids television) and PBS Kids (in particular for Sesame Street). But then along came the Retro Toon Channel and we couldn't resist. Of course we'd rather watch Bugs Bunny than Dora and would rather watch the Flinstones than Toopy and Binoo and our kids loved the classic cartoons our our childhood too, so we tuned in, or should I say tooned in. We had a TV in our open concept kitchen, dining, sitting and play area, and retro toons were often on as we went about our day. At first the commercials didn't seem that bad. They weren't targeting kids that much, they seemed to be targeting an older generation. It was commercials for things like skin care products. My son was convinced that he needed to buy Grannie some Proactiv for her birthday, but otherwise the commercials didn't seem to be having much effect on the kids.

But then the Christmas commercials started. Not in December, not in late November, but back in October or maybe even September. And that is when the chorus began. It didn't matter what type of plastic crap was being advertised, they wanted it, they needed it, it was the best thing ever. Couldn't the people that market plastic pink princess garbage be hired to market broccoli?

So last week the TV disappeared. We still have one in the basement, but we aren't watching the Retro Toon Channel. It is there to watch specific TV shows at specific times, like the Madagascar movie night that I had tonight with the two kids, a Saturday morning spent catching up on some classic German kids shows on our imported DVDs, our our little girl's daily date with Big Bird and the gang.

What a difference it has made! The chorus has stopped. Our son still has Christmas on his mind, but at least his Christmas wish list is now coming from his head and his imagination, rather than being beamed to him via 30 second segments designed to warp his mind.

Another sad demonstration of where consumerism has led us

I like stuff. I won't pretend that I don't. But I think I have it somewhat in check. I don't buy brands just for the brand. I don't feel the need to run to the stores and spend, spend, spend when a sale is on. Today was Black Friday in the United States and consumers there took the occaision to demonstrate how crazy some have become. A deadly stampede that killed a store employee at a Long Island Wal Mart and a shooting at a California Toys R Us.

Beyond these hopefully isolated incidents, there is research showing that consumerism is stressful to kids. I know that I found it stressful growing up. It seemed like I was the only girl in my class the year Cabbage Patch Kids came out that didn't get one for Christmas and everyone else had theirs with them at school on the first day back. In high school, I wasn't lacking clothing, but I didn't have Ralph Lauren or Benneton like the rich kids in my class and when I thought I had something nice that looked somewhat like their brand name labels, I would get mocked for trying to be like them.

The article Lunchbox Hegemony: Kids & The Marketplace, Then & Now explores these concepts in particular as it relates to marketing junk food to kids. I found this quote particularly telling:

What is most troubling is that children's culture has become virtually indistinguishable from consumer culture over the course of the last century. The cultural marketplace is now a key arena for the formation of the sense of self and of peer relationships, so much so that parents are often stuck between giving into a kid's purchase demands or risking their child becoming an outcast on the playground.

The keeping up with the Joneses attitude that has become commonplace in Western society is in great part what led to the inflated home prices and excessive consumer debt that are key components of the current economic crisis.

What can be done?

This is the tough question. Obviously there are things that corporations and the advertising industry could be doing to be more responsible with regards to how they market to children. But what can we as parents do? What are we willing to do? When the kids are little and always at home, it is easier. You can choose to not watch TV, choose to not buy brands or characters, choose to not go into stores that market overtly to kids when you have them with you, or choose not to go into them at all to save yourself from acting on and passing on that consumerism.

But we, as parents, are also victims of consumerism. And once kids are out of the house and among their peers, the peer pressure sets in. I'm thankful that my son's school has uniforms. He's only in preschool and a lot of people scoff at the idea of preschoolers in a uniform, but I'm glad he is. When I already see how impacted he is by the shoes or bag that one of his classmates has, I'm glad we're not dealing with him coveting their shirts, jeans, and the rest of what they're wearing. Getting dressed in the morning doesn't involve fighting over what to wear other than whether to wear the red polo or the blue polo.

I think that teaching our kids about the value of helping other people, about the value of nature, and about the value of a dollar, can all help somewhat to curb the corporate influence. However, sometimes I feel a bit helpless to shield my kids a bit from consumerism and some experts validate that feeling:

Corporate and state abdication of responsibility is rationalized on the grounds that responsibility for adverse child outcomes (e.g., obesity, psychological disorders) lies with parents. Both the ad agencies and their client companies take this point of view. The corporation’s mandate is to make money, the government’s is to help them do so.

So we and the kids are essentially thrown to the wolves...great...

More Resources

• Children as Consumers (from Global Issues): Including why advertising to children is big business, encouraging and increasing childhood consumerism, heavy advertising targeted at children, approaches to reducing advertising to children, corporatization of education, examples of the effects of child consumerism, parental versus corproate influence, and the commercialization of childhood itself.
• Marketing and Consumerism: Special Issues for Young Children (from Media Awareness Network): This includes info on developmental concerns, the effects of materialism, junk food advertising and nutritional concerns, marketing toys based on teen and adult entertainment, and young consumers as collectors. It also has links to related materials on issues like talking to kids about advertising and how to enjoy commercial free television.
• Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole (by Benjamin R. Barber): "Consumed" offers a portrait of how adults are infantilised in a global economy that overproduces goods and targets children as consumers in a market where there are never enough shoppers. Driven by a frantic imperative to sell, consumer capitalism specialises today in the manufacture not of goods but of needs.

Annie blogs about the art and science of parenting at http://phdinparenting.com