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Stop Advertising to My Grandchildren
by Betty Woodward
TV and movie tie-ins and "fashionista" promotions are turning kids into adolescents before their time.
The latest Indiana Jones flick just opened, but the promotions for toys linked to the film have been running for weeks. Indy is popping up in the middle of video games, on websites, and on toy-store shelves. Kids far too young to remember the first Indy movie, in 1981, are clamoring for The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull video game, which retails for nearly $80.00.
Movies and TV shows have always shared an unholy alliance with the advertising world. In the early 1970s, Action for Children’s Television (ACT), the child advocacy organization, tried to get commercials for toys and food banned from children’s programming. They met with limited success — hosts of children’s programs could no longer appear in spots targeting kids, and the amount of commercial time during children’s shows was reduced.
But the ads remained. And, like the Indiana Jones game, many of the toys that are so appealing to our grandchildren today are based on TV or movie characters. Is there a toy box in America that doesn’t hold a Yoda, a SpongeBob, or a Transformer? In 1987, 60 percent of toys sold in the U.S. were based on licensed characters. I can only imagine what that percentage is today.
Equally distressing is the noticeable lack of advertising for traditional toys that stimulate creativity, allow for interaction with adults, and improve cognitive and motor skills — such as Lincoln Logs, puzzles, puppets, arts-and-crafts kits, blocks, or board games. I fear licensed-character toys are better at teaching grandchildren to become good consumers than fueling their imaginations.
The American Psychological Association (APA) is concerned too. In 2004, it recommended that ads targeting children under 8 be restricted because kids that age typically accept as truth anything a broadcast ad says — and the average child watches more than 40,000 commercials per year.
The tendency for our grandchildren to become gullible young consumers has another disturbing dimension. Check out the Web: You can find designer size-2 mini-skirts for $100, Juicy Couture apparel for the age 4-6 set, and Hannah Montana body lotion for tweens who want to “smell and feel like a secret celebrity.” A New York Times article last month reported on the trend of tween girls having their hair highlighted because of heightened awareness of fashion, as well as peer pressure to fit in.
Youngsters are being introduced to fashion and consumerist messages before they can truly understand their ramifications. And the ramifications can be serious — a 2007 APA report found that “the proliferation of sexualized images of girls in advertising, merchandising, and media is harmful to [their] self-image and healthy development.”
We grandparents should support our grown kids’ efforts to see that our grandchildren enjoy the toys, clothes and activities that are appropriate for their age groups. And we should encourage them to be involved in sports and other activities that promote their talents and self-esteem rather than their physical appearance or possessions. The time will come soon enough when they cross over into that murky world of adolescence.
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11 Answers
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Yes, it's a struggle to get them to appreciate what they already have.
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No, their viewing time is restricted, and they don't get whatever they want.
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| My grandson is allowed to watch way too much television. In fact he doesn't want to sit at the dinner table to eat unless he can watch cartoons. I think his parents are making a big mistake. So he has to have character shirts and pajamas and gets a new toy every week that the latest movie happens to be pushing. In an exact opposite lifestyle my other grandchildren are not allowed to watch very much television and they play outside more. But they have each other to play with and my grandson is an only child. They are not as familiar with the cartoon characters and movie fashions.
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