Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood

The Media Education Foundation has produced some fabulous documentaries in the past and Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood is just the latest of well-produced and thought provoking films.

As someone who has taught media literacy for years I have witnessed how the advertising and media entertainment industry has increased the intensity of how they target children. I say target, because that is the language that they use when talking about children. Here is what James McNeal, the man who wrote the fist book on targeting kids has to say:

“Kids are the most unsophisticated of all consumers; they have the least and therefore want the most. Consequently, they are in a perfect position to be taken.”

Targeting of children through advertising and entertainment media has become so sophisticated and so pervasive that most often we don’t even notice it. Well, after watching this documentary, you will not only notice the techniques that media companies use in targeting children, you will have a good framework for understanding why they do it.

One excellent point that Consuming Kids points out is that when the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) deregulated children’s TV at the end of the Carter years it had a huge impact on how media companies could direct their attention towards younger audiences. First, it allowed products to be turned into children’s TV shows. Before the FTC decision, toys were an outcome of programs like Saturday morning cartoons. With the deregulation of the industry, now media companies and toy manufactures could create TV shows that were based upon products, thus turning the TV show into a 30-minute commercial.

The other aspect of this documentary that struck me was the discussion around how this hyper-commercialism impacts children. Consuming Kids provides plenty of examples and experts on what the long-term affects of targeting kids with messages that promote the idea that you are valued by what you consume.

In many ways the film is a critique of Capitalism, although it never states that directly. I say this because the idea that humans, whether they are children or adults, are nothing more than consumers is fundamentally a Capitalist notion.

Consuming Kids in some ways is too much to take in, but is an excellent tool for not only generating discussion, but getting all of us to think seriously at how the media functions in a capitalist system and what we can do to defend our children and ourselves against the images and messages we are constantly bombarded with.

For people who live in the West Michigan area, there is an opportunity to view a public screening of this documentary. The newly formed group Stop Targeting Our Kids (STOK) will be hosting a public screening on Wednesday, May 20 at 7pm in the Applied Technology Center at the Grand Rapids Community College. For more information contact STOK at stokaction@gmail.com.