04 June 2007

On marketing to kiddies

I've said it before - marketing to kiddies is a DISGRACE!!!

In the past, I've singled out the music, tobacco and alcohol industries as the main offenders, but somehow, I've missed the elephant in the middle of the room.

Thanks to Plonka's Blog, (in this post here) I'm now in a position to rectify this. This is a vid fresh from YouTube, and I've gotta tell you - it is seriously worrying.

Warning: Scenes contained in this vid are likely to offend the bejesus out of you.



And now we can add fundamentalist Christianity to the list.

Edit 12/06/2007: Bob the Austin Atheist has added his take on this. It's worth a read, particularly as he "outs" the source of this highly questionable video.

8 comments:

beepbeepitsme said...

Yes, I don't like marketting to children either. These major advertising companies can spend millions of dollars working out which psychological gambit will make people "better sonsumers".

Children, I think, have less defence towards thses concerted, persuasive and manipulative campaigns.

Amazingly, the issues I have with TV in general, find a voice also in some religious communities. This does not make their religious beliefs correct, but it may mean that they don't like competing propaganda.

For me, I just think that kids don't have the capacity to be discerning consumers of either product or information and that there are various groups which would take deliberate advantage of this.

Dikkii said...

Children, I think, have less defence towards thses concerted, persuasive and manipulative campaigns.

You're quite right, and I think that it's compounded by parents who like to can't say no to anything that their children ask for.

I'd like to see a ban on aiming advertising at kids - however, this would mean that kids would only get TV programming through the ABC. What can you do?

Plonka said...

I try to keep my kids well educated as to the tricks these guys employ, but it's a never ending battle.

Dikkii said...

Kinda glad I don't have kids yet, Plonka.

Having to try to stem the unstoppable tide of marketing would be quite difficult, I would imagine.

KitKat said...

I thought it was an interesting irony that the cartoon people looked like stylised monkeys.

The kids may get brainwashed into religion, but they'll be surreptitiously persuaded with regards evolution...

Could you label this kind of thing as child abuse?

Dikkii said...

Kathryn, now that you mention that, they do!

I do agree with Richard Dawkins on this - yes it would be child abuse, I think.

Bob said...

After checking the recent comments on the video at YouTube, I may have found it's source. Damn my curiosity.

Dikkii said...

Thanks for your sleuthing, Bob. That looks like a interesting, if disturbing site that deserves some scrutiny.

It's a shame we can't leave comments at that site.