Monday, October 29, 2007

Brand Free Kids

Thanks to my friend Rich for sending this to me, I was talking to my friend Amy this weekend about the fear of raising Brand/Consumption Obsessed Future/Imaginary children... very a propos.


Kyla Epstein and son Max Suy-Epstein. Photo C. Kimmett
From day one, you've got to fight Winnie the Pooh.
By
Colleen KimmettPublished: October 30, 2007
TheTyee.ca

Parents, be warned: It takes only a single visit to McDonald's for your child to get hooked on the greasy stuff for life.
Okay, so that's an exaggeration. But the three-year-old son of Angela Verbrugge still remembers his one and only meal under the golden arches. Which has Verbrugge worried.
And Kyla Epstein swears if her young son Max ever wants to eat there, he'll be doing it on his own dime.
These parents aren't raging against the health detriments of fast food. Instead, they are making a conscious effort to limit the amount of branding and advertising their kids are exposed to in all aspects of their lives; what they eat, wear, watch and play with.
It's not easy. Brands are everywhere -- literally.
Disney 24/7
Genevieve McMahon says she experienced an "eye-opening" moment the first time she bought disposable diapers for her newborn daughter Imogen, who was then too small for the cloth variety her parents preferred.
"We were unpacking them to put them in her drawer and realized there were Walt Disney Winnie the Pooh characters all over them," she says.
"It was at that point when we were like, oh wow ... it's everywhere. I mean, she's not even conscious and yet here they are advertising. I'm staring at it everyday. And eventually...she's going to recognize them."
PS. after i had copied and pasted this from the web page i realised that it had insterted the word "ADVERTISEMENT" into the text at various intervals. Rather ironic don't you think?

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