Shielding Children

[Gary Ruskin]

Commercial Alert 			September 23, 2000

Following is a op-ed by Susan Linn and Diane Levin about the commercial
assault on children, in the Sept. 22 edition of the Christian Science
Monitor.

http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2000/09/22/fpcon-edit.shtml

Shielding Children 
By Susan Linn and Diane E. Levin 

It's rare that an award ceremony should be cause for alarm. But the
third annual Golden Marble Awards, the advertising industry's
celebration of successful marketing to children, ought to worry anyone
concerned about our children's well-being. This year the ceremony was
held in New York on Sept. 14 – the same day the federal government
published a report documenting the rapid growth of marketing in schools,
and four days after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released its
findings that media companies deliberately market violence to children. 

Marketing to children has become so pervasive that the ad world
apparently thinks it warrants a separate awards ceremony. These awards
honor artistry without questioning the ethics of marketing to children.
The annointed commercials may be brilliantly designed and executed, but
the praise is bestowed without regard for the way ads manipulate
children or for how the products affect children and families. 

Kids are barraged with advertising from the moment they wake up until
bedtime. Corporations spent more than $12 billion in 1999 marketing to
children. They're bombarded with products linked to TV characters, toy
giveaways at fast-food chains, and product placements in movies and
television. Children see 30,000 commercials annually on television
alone. And there's growing evidence that it's harmful to them. 

Last month, after reviewing 1,000 studies conducted over 30 years, a
coalition of professional organizations, including the American Academy
of Pediatrics, linked violent media to aggressive behavior. Yet
professional wrestling programs, which are rated TV-14, and violent
movies such as "X-Men" (rated PG-13) peddle violent action figures to
preschoolers. As the recent FTC report confirms, the entertainment
industry intentionally markets violent content to children through
products it officially rates as unsuitable. 

At a time when childhood obesity has become a major public health
problem, the fast-food industry is the biggest advertiser on television.
McDonald's alone spends $6 million a year on advertising. Studies show
that obese children are more susceptible to the "feel good" messages
embedded in advertising. 

At the same time, advertisers present children with models who are
impossibly slim. Over one-third of girls in grades 5 to 8 report dieting
in the last year, and studies document that discontent with body images
rises with exposure to fashion magazines. 

Advertising even affects the way children play. The most advertised,
bestselling toys are linked to media programs. Yet children often play
less creatively with toys based on characters from television and film. 

Young children are vulnerable to marketing exploitation. They tend to
believe what they see, they don't understand that ads are meant to sell
them something, and they have trouble differentiating between
commercials and programming. 

The deregulation of children's television in 1984 made it possible to
use programs to promote toys, further blurring the line between ads and
shows. In addition, companies now wield increasingly sophisticated
technology, extensive market research, and the expertise of child
psychologists. Today, children influence purchases totaling about $500
billion a year – a sure sign of corporations' success. 

The ubiquitous media, combined with virtually unrestricted marketing
practices, makes obsolete the conventional wisdom that parents can
protect their children from commercial culture. To some extent, parents
can mitigate the effects of marketing, but unless families retreat to
the woods, children are exposed at friends' houses, on the street, the
playground, supermarkets, and even in school. 

That companies get awards for doing the best job of manipulating
children into buying things is emblematic of a consumer culture that is
out of control. Parents need help from policymakers to protect children
from this unprecedented assault. The White House should lead the way by
convening a conference on corporate marketing and its effects on
children to serve as a springboard for national dialogue and lay the
groundwork for creating appropriate policy. The National Institutes of
Health should fund research on the psychosocial and health consequences
of intensive marketing to children. 

Children pay for advertising. They pay with their safety, their health,
and their creativity. Why should the industry reward itself for
succeeding at a practice that exploits society's most vulnerable
members? The Third Annual Golden Marble Awards should be the last. 

Susan Linn is associate director of the media center at Judge Baker
Children's Center in Boston. Diane E. Levin is a professor of education
at Wheelock College in Boston and author of 'Remote Control Childhood'
(National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1998). 

<-----article ends here----->
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excesses of commercialism, advertising and marketing.  Commercial
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Gary Ruskin | Commercial Alert 
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