Last week, I was dutifully matching my coupons with the sale ad while creating my grocery list. A.P. was hanging around, and asked if I could put “Totinos Pizza Rolls” on the list. This may not seem like a big deal, but he has never had Totinos Pizza Rolls. I certainly have nothing against them; I just have never bought them so it was strange to hear such a request.
I asked him what he knew about them. Immediately he turned into TV Zombie Kid and recited a commercial for them perfectly, even adding that they were “easy for moms and fun for kids.” This is a kid who watches TV, but usually videos and PBS. Commercials are not a part of his daily life.
Let me stop here to admit something. This is my area of parental weirdness. We all have them – you know what I am talking about. There is so much out there in the world that could potentially harm our kids, but different people pick different things to fixate on. Mine is commercials. I would not be understating my position to say that I am obsessed with not letting my kids watch commercials.
My husband (who watched a zillion commercials growing up but I have nevertheless effectively terrified him as well) and I sprang to action. Rather than buying the Totinos version, we promptly bought fixin’s to make “Binder” pizza rolls. We mixed peperoni, sauce, and cheese up and as a family, filled and wrapped about 48 wonton wrappers into a pizza roll shape. We made it a family event.
A.P. didn’t buy it for a second. While he enjoyed our home-made version, he contends that the Totino’s product is superior. So good, in fact, that “everyone is happy” when they eat them. He still can’t wait to get his hands on some.
Children under the age of 6 cannot distinguish commercials from the show they are watching. They don’t know they are being ‘sold’ to – they think they are being told the truth and don’t have the maturity to discern what is fact and what is just persuasion.
I am on the lookout for suggestions about how to counteract the effects of commercials. I realize it’s not realistic to raise a children who never see commercials, and I don’t want to. I want to give them the tools to make sense of them. Here is a small list of resources I have assembled; please feel free to leave a comment with any others that you know about, or with your thoughts on the matter!
-
New American Dream website
-
Buy, Buy Baby by Susan Gregory Thomas
-
New York Times article about companies withdrawing advertising of ‘junk food’ to children under 12.
Thank you for saying this: sometimes I feel like the weirdest hippy granola nut case on our block for being concerned about commercials and advertising and what it can do to kids. I know that my kids, 2 and 3 years old, would currently prefer the making of pizza rolls to buying some pre-packaged, but I know the day will come when they want something just for the sell job that was done on them. [heavy sigh]
OK. I am stepping up on my soapbox. One the best books I read when my youngest was little was: Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture by Juliet B. Schor. She shows how advertisers target young kids directly and consistently, appeal to them and not the adults in their lives and get their product name in their heads from as early an age as possible. From TV shows and toys to video games, snacks and clothing, kids today, according to Schor, know too much yet understand too little, sopping up subliminal and not-so-subliminal messages of “buy, buy, buy.” Drawing on a significant body of research, including interviews with everyone from advertising executives to the kids themselves, Schor exposes what she believes to be a huge cesspool of materialism, consumerism and commercialization that could be, and perhaps already is, leading to a generation of kids with no concept of what is important and truly necessary in life. By offering up her own ideas of what can be done by parents, educators, advertisers and others to lessen these problems, Schor goes beyond uncovering the problem and into the realm of concrete solutions. Other than my hanna addiction, I try to brainwash my kids into believing what I tell them. So far it is working, but it is tough. Good for you! OK, I’m stepping down.
I am also a freak about this. For us TV is majorly minimized and when it is watched it is PBS and Noggin (both commercial free). As far as food that is hard cause they are stickin characters on EVERYTHING. The only one I appreciate is Green Giant who puts them on veggies. That being said, my daughter can spy Golden Arches from miles away so I am not sure I am doing the best job either. I think we can do little things that hopefully make a difference.
Stop over and check out Parents for Ethical Marketing. It may be just the blog you are looking for. And we’re always looking for new voices to join us.
Pingback: Birthday List for Big Binder « BigBinder