Is media literacy for kids kind of like blaming the victim?
Congratulations to the Federal Trade Commission for taking on advertising literacy for kids. They’ve recently introduced an online game, Admongo, to help kids better navigate their commercialized world. While playing the game, kids must closely examine fictional ads: Who is responsible for the ad? What is the ad actually saying? What does the ad want me to do?
Associated resources and a curriculum for grades 5 and 6 are available through Scholastic. (The Scholastic site for parents is coming soon!)
The FTC previously introduced You are Here, a site that also teachers kids about marketing and advertising but includes lessons on business practices and other topics.
I fully support media literacy, of course. But I can’t help but wonder: What is being done to stop the worst of the worst marketing in the first place?
Commercials Are the Culprit in TV-Obesity Link
Yale Study Finds More Licensed Characters and Other Packaging Promotions Used to Market Less Nutritious Foods to Kids
A Fine Line when Ads and Children Mix
Junk food gets spotlight in many movies: study
BK Kids Meals – Minneapolis’ Campbell Mithun’s Junk Food Client
U-M Researcher Says Preschoolers Understand the Power of Advertising
Just asking.
Over at Mom-101 is a great round-up (in the comments) of what real parents are doing to teach their kids about marketing. I think even Mom-101, a former writer of commercials, would support PEM’s tenets:
– Ethical marketing targets only consumers who can perceive and understand the persuasive tactics in commercials.
– Ethical marketing promotes products that are not harmful to children.
– Ethical marketing supports strong families by respecting parental authority in the parent-child relationship.
March 10th, 2010 at 7:46 pm
Corporations are unable to stop their advertising methods. They’re just corporations! What do you expect out of them? On the other hand, kids can obviously learn to better handle corporate advertising directed at them. Those kids have to take responsibility for themselves when multi-billion dollar corporations with carefully crafted marketing techniques are target them. That’s just common sense. So stop picking on those corporations!
March 10th, 2010 at 8:57 pm
Too funny! This comment may be spam but I had to post it anyway. If you’re not spam, funny post commenter, show yourself! I love your sense of humor! “That’s just common sense.” — hysterical!