Who minds the child?

Power to the Parents? Advertising convinces both parents and children that commodities positively define the self
From WhoMindsTheChild.org

The family has been identified as being instrumental in teaching children aspects of consumption, such as price-quality relationships, learning to save money and comparison shopping. Historically, advertisements to children were directed through their mothers, as women became the key targets in the early stages of the modern consumer society due to their purchasing power in the family. Corporate advertising used the role of mother as a propaganda strategy to develop a culture of consumption with young children as the targets.

Children now crave an image -- popularity and belonging amongst their peers -- that becomes increasingly difficult for parents to challenge. Parent-child conflict over purchasing contributions adds significantly to familial strife.

Corporations have not only succeeded in convincing children of the need for specific objects of pleasure in the form of toys and food, they have done an equally convincing job with their parents. Advertising convinces both parents and children that commodities positively define the self.

Many parents have also been deluded into thinking the new generation of children, who can manage computers and identify a mouse as a piece of computer hardware before they know a mouse is also an animal, are somehow smarter, more sophisticated and better informed. What is overlooked is exposure to corporate control and influence is still prominent.

For more info see: Who Minds the Child? - Parents