Like when we think something ..is that something that we really thought on our own? Or something that was subliminally programed in us by all the advertising companies.

To think that this infiltration is being focused on kids as well. Young children, they are our future. Whatever they are .. is what the world will be in the future.

In order for a solid future you need people building it with strong values … and well i just know now how good these values are that advertisers are teaching kids.

That right there is a very scary thought.

Young Investor

http://www.investmentrealty.blogspot.com

This is the reason I’ve decided to give up reading these ridiculous blogs. They are simply fluff.

Here is the quote from the begining of the article:
“Introduction
The book opens with a historical perspective of the history of marketing, going back to the nascent days when children weren’t marketed to at all, forward to the period between World War I and World War II where marketing for child-targeted products were pitched at the parents, on to today where most advertising is targeted at children in some way or another.”

My response was that marketing & advertising have been around for hundreds of years. That includes marketing to children. If anyone would like to research that instead of simply accepting what people tell them is true (myself included), you will find a lengthy history on the subjects of ads & marketing throughout the centuries that spans continents.

And fortunately, Boomerang doesn’t advertise anything except Cartoon Network. No toys, no clothes, no music. Thank you, Boomerang.

Our church has a school and produces some extremely well educated and well rounded kids. It is a third as expensive to send a kid through the church school as it is public school and they get a better education. More money is not the answer, more accountability is the answer for public schools.

I spent time in the public school system and was appalled at the information that they thought appropriate to teach a child. More parents need to get involved in the school system, which is exactly what the school system does not want, to see what they are teaching. The text books are horrible revisionist drivel and the required reading is equally bad. I had a play that was required for 8th grade students with language in it, that if the student had used the same, would have landed them in in-school suspension or detention.

Our children need protection and the best protection is to turn off the idiot box and get involved.

You are reading my mind again. I’m working on a review of Buy, Buy Baby, which is about this very topic. Look for it on Tuesday.

I think I’ll give this one a read and compare notes.

In my area, a (religious) education comparable to public school is more expensive per year than our local tax bill. (Some might think of religion as yet another form of ads.)

Perhaps schools should leave sports to the private sector and plow that funding into academics.

Where exactly does one go to get paid 40 grand (or anything) to teach one high school class a day? I have GOTTA move there (assuming it’s not San Francisco, where 40 grand wouldn’t rent a room to live in).

Fulltime teachers in Arizona start in the 20s and teach five to seven classes a day and are expected to be there after school to meet with parents, supervise extracurricular activities, etc. etc. endlessly etc. Those “free” (read “unpaid”) summers are spent in required professional development courses and workshops, and in preparing the next year’s coursework.

On the university level, I taught four & four every semester and earned 43 grand. How am I glad I’m not teaching anymore? Let me count the ways….

While I don’t agree with advertising in schools, and would be thrilled to see all the vending machines at our school disappear, I don’t think it is fair to imply that schools are greedy, and want more than their allotted funding (which is apparently a wash anyway, as one of the above commenters seems to think that we are doing a very poor job of educating our students with the money we currently have). I can tell you from my experience as a public school teacher in a wealthier district that it was a fight to get new textbooks for my students this year (we had been using a set that was over a decade old, and the pedagogy had changed significantly in the passing time), and I spend a significant amount of my own resources to give what I feel is the best, and most useful information to my students. The way budgets are allocated within the school seems a mystery to those of us in the school, so I must imagine that those outside of the profession could be easily confused. However, a budget surpless in one area does not translate to money being allocated to a different area (i.e., if the science department has extra money, that money cannot be spent in the music department, no matter how much the music department might be lacking in supplies). Again, I don’t think that advertising should be allowed in schools. I am, however, incensed at the opinion that public schools are already receiving more than their fair share of resources, and should work with what they have rather than search for extra funding. Compare the federal funding of education against the federal defense budget and tell me where you would assume our priorities lie.

I disagree that ads are in schools for money due to the lack of government funding. As a child of a life long teacher, schools have plenty of money. What they do with it and who regulates it is another thing. A high school teacher making 40k a year to teach one class a day? Not such a good use of money or space or time.

Interesting fact: San Paulo recently banned all outdoor advertising. People can actually see the stars at night. Tells you how much advertising is really going on in the world.

One of the scariest moments in my Life As a Mom came when my son (hang on to your hat) squawked when I tried to mute the volume on the ads during a TV program. At that moment, I was startled to learn the kid was using the remote to turn the volume UP on the ads!!!!! Why? Because the advertising content was more interesting to him than the programming.

Drive down the street some day and count the number of ads you’re presented with. If your errand is to the grocer’s, don’t forget to count the ads plastered on the grocery cart and the ads pumped into your ears on the PA system and the ads on your receipt and the coupons proposing to give you a discount on products you wouldn’t otherwise buy. And if you have the radio on (even to NPR), remember to count the ads you hear on that. And consider that your kids hear and see all that and more (because they’re exposed to the crassest kind of advertising in school).

Mike also is right on when he says “Isn’t it better to teach them to think critically about all the advertising images they see than to try to keep them away from advertising?” The only way the kids will be able to cope is to become aware that about 80% percent of the sensory information that enters their brains is designed to sell them something, and to help them learn how to cope with that.

Anyone for building a commune in the middle of the Gobi desert?

I agree that kids need to be taught to function in the world, but I also know that marketers do NOT have kids’ interests at heart, and are working hard to influence them. Adults need to be informed about the pressures being brought to bear on kids so they can help the kids make sense of it, and even shield them from it when possible.

I highly recommend the book – it’s downright shocking at how much things have changed since we were kids.

My middle-school-aged kids are wonderful about walking by displays in stores and saying, “Look at how they are trying to sell that candy to little kids in those SpongeBob containers” and “Look, that picture is trying to convince us those ugly shoes are cool.” They are very savvy about the ways that advertising works, and we all laugh together at the crazy methods TV commercials use try to associate emotions with products.

I say limit kids’ exposure to a reasonable extent, but also teach kids to have some fun with pop culture. We like Nickelodeon and even TV commercials. “Commercial” culture can be a lot of fun if you have a sense of humor about it and understand how marketers try to manipulate people.

Mike