My Article on Marketing to Kids

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Mar 23, 2010 at 14:46:00 PM PDT

Today I have a piece on Alternet about marketing to kids. This issue became VERY personal when I moved in with my boyfriend and his two young kids. In fact, the article opens with a paragraph or two about my boyfriend and his oldest daughter. I wrote about them not to criticize his parenting but to point out how tricky the marketers are, operating in ways that the parents just don't suspect. Even wonderful, loving, involved, intelligent parents like my boyfriend. Every so often, the kids come home with a new toy. When I ask where they got it, my boyfriend will say, "You won't like the answer." That means: It came from a Happy Meal. He does this rarely now, but the McDonald's trips were much more frequent before I came into the picture. At my suggestion, he's at least transitioned over to In N Out Burger when his kids really start begging for fast food.  

Things have changed since I've been around. I assume that he let his ex-wife (and the kids themselves) take the lead on a lot of things, perhaps because as a guy, he figured that they knew best what girls wanted. When it comes down to it, my boyfriend is incredibly loving and that's the most important thing any parent can do. Many parents THINK they provide their kids with unconditional love but they don't. Many can't, often because they didn't receive unconditional love when they were kids. But my boyfriend truly does. And while that's the #1 most crucial thing any parent can do, but it doesn't give them a free pass on other things - like paying attention to marketing to their own kids.

When we've talked about marketing, my boyfriend noted that his generation was exposed to marketing too and he came out fine. Which is true. Except marketers are so much more sophisticated now that parents who assume that just have NO IDEA what their kids are being exposed to. It's not just the food, but toys too. And while the issues I write about are all food-related, as a step-parent, I can't ignore toys.

I was very grateful that this article forced me to reach out to the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, because their work is excellent. I read through several pages of their site and they effectively state what I have observed but often haven't been able to put into words. All of the marketing these days can zap a kid's creativity. Our little one likes to play pretend, but very often that means just recreating scenes from Disney movies, word for word. She's got Cinderella's official dress AND glass slippers. I've been the wicked stepmother (ironic, huh?), the stepsisters, and the prince. She's ALWAYS Cinderella. It's so cute when she does this (although I HATE participating) but there's very little creativity involved because the story and the script are already written for her.  

I noticed on my own that a lot of the marketing trains children as consumers from a young age. Nowhere is this more apparent than with the Webkinz toys, which our older daughter LOVES. She's got about $600 worth of these stupid stuffed animals, and she logs each one into the Webkinz website and gives it a gender and a name. Then she plays games on the site to win fake money, which she can use to buy stuff for her Webkinz virtual world. The entire goal of the game is the needless accumulation of stuff.  

But Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood points out an even MORE disturbing point. Marketing teaches children that you need to always have newer, bigger, better, and more. What you have now is never enough. Buddhism teaches that pain comes from desire, and by ending desire, one can end pain. In other words, be happy with what you have. And certainly sometimes people have legitimate needs, and it's nice to get a new present or treat once in a while. But does one child need 40 stuffed animals or more? (And yes, she wants more.) This mentality creates unhappiness, as there is always something more to buy and what you have is never enough.

The Government's Plans for Guidelines on Advertising to Kids

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Dec 15, 2009 at 13:45:50 PM PST

Today's FTC Event: Panel on Self-Regulation of Food Ads to Kids

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Dec 15, 2009 at 11:59:07 AM PST

FTC to Hold Forum on Food Marketing to Kids

by: Jill Richardson

Mon Dec 07, 2009 at 00:50:49 AM PST

Below you'll find some of the findings of the report, as well as details of the event on the 15th. The recommendations made in the report are entirely outrageous. They totally accept the fact that corporations are going to continue to spend billions marketing junk to kids. Furthermore, they ask the companies to do outreach to kids, teaching them healthy eating habits. I'm sorry but I really do not want Coca-Cola and McDonalds teaching kids about healthy eating!! If any readers of this blog can make it to the forum, I urge you to go - and then post a diary about it on this blog afterward.

UPDATE: The event will be available by webcast here.

FTC Disclosures

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Oct 06, 2009 at 23:50:42 PM PDT

I've also received some free goodies (tea, coffee, chocolate, cranberries, and pecans) from Equal Exchange when I visited them and a half pound of Just Coffee coffee a week ago. That's it - I've now come clean. From now on, I will disclose these things as they occur, although I plan to continue turning down most offers of freebies. (By the way, the Equal Exchange chocolate was AMAZING, as is the wild rooibos tea. The coffee is vacuum sealed so I'm waiting to finish up more perishable stuff before trying it. I've started in on the Just Coffee Solidarity Blend and OMG it's wonderful. But I knew that before visiting Just Coffee - I've been a fan of their work and their coffee for years.)

Sampler Platter

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Apr 30, 2009 at 10:00:00 AM PDT

• Kellogg's Mini Wheats are not brain food. Officially. Thanks, Federal Trade Commission. Now can you crack down on those obnoxious Function Drinks and their outrageous label claims?

• Natasha Chart wrote up a fantastic piece about why the three sisters (corn, beans, and squash) are so darn nifty.

• Civil Eats writes about Obama's First 100 Days They give the Obamas a B- as a couple, but Michelle is the A student between the two of them when it comes to food and agriculture. (Obama Foodorama also rates Obama's first 100 days. Both articles are worth a read, IMO.)

• Does nanotechnology belong in organics? Broadly speaking, Consumers Union says no, although they note that "it all depends on what one means by nanotechnology."

• Eating Liberally interviewed one of my favorite people ever, Tim LaSalle, in their article The Doctor with a Dirty Prescription to Purge Our Bodies and the Planet. Which reminds me, I saw an awesome bumper sticker that calls on us to stop treating our soil like dirt. I totally want one!!!

• Ha!!! Marion Nestle discusses whether stevia is really natural. You see, stevia is a plant that IS sweet but it has its own flavor. I like using its leaves in teas or curries, but you certainly wouldn't make a batch of cookies using a bunch of ground up stevia leaves. Instead, companies have to "fuss with it" (as Nestle puts it) to cover up the stevia taste if they want to use it as a sweetener. And then is the resulting product still "natural"?

• Smart Money shows the cost of 100 calories at fast food joints. More like Dumb Money if that's how people are planning their food budgets. Hat tip to Marion Nestle.

• Lucky Seattle residents have a new ferry farm stand to look forward to. Commuting just got a lot healthier :)

• Oh Michele Bachmann. Who will we have to laugh at after we vote you out of office in 2010? Her latest is that CO2 isn't bad because it's a natural byproduct of nature.

• Grist examines the differences between soy milk, rice milk, and hemp milk.

• I was glad to read this post from the Internet Food Association that says avocado oil can withstand high heat. Around here, eating local means eating avocado oil. I've visited Bella Vado and watched how they made theirs. Mmm!

• Grossed out Madison, WI students boycott school lunch. Way to go, kids! When the grown-ups fail you, take matters into your own hands!

Local Insanity In The Whole Foods FTC Case

by: JayinPortland

Mon Dec 08, 2008 at 01:54:58 AM PST

Seemingly, the nine-store chain, which opened its first Portland market in 2000, represents a like-minded if not diminutive rival for the 28-year-old Whole Foods, which operates more than 270 stores in North America and England.

Whole Foods contends that New Seasons is at the heart of its defense in an antitrust case that, if lost, could cost the ritzy retailer big fines and the loss of the Wild Oats stores it gained across the country.

The subpoena demands two years' worth of New Seasons' weekly sales data, internal e-mails, inventory records, marketing and expansion plans. Whole Foods said it sent nearly identical requests to 93 other retailers and vendors nationwide, including two others in Portland -- the two-store Food Front chain and the lone People's Co-Op.

It's interesting that in trying to prove their case to the government that they're not a monopoly seeking to stomp out competition at all costs, they've used this very case to attempt to gain a significant advantage in one of the very few cities in America where they don't currently hold a monopoly in the organic and natural foods market.

FTC Hands Kids Over to Junk Food Marketers, Defying Global Principles

by: Michele Simon

Mon Aug 18, 2008 at 07:16:39 AM PDT

Like many other government reports, it's like one staff person (among the rank and file) wrote the description of the problem, while another (more politically accountable) wrote the recommendations. Trouble is the two don't go together. What's the point of having a government agency conduct a damning investigation that results in no meaningful recommendations for regulatory action?

It's Official: Big Food Tarkets Kids

by: Michele Simon

Thu Aug 07, 2008 at 07:17:48 AM PDT