It’s Friday of fundraising week and although this drive goes until Thanksgiving, regular posting resumes on Monday. Thanks to Sara Grimes (Gamine Expedition) and Dave Orsborn (Whole Kids Project) for supporting PEM by sending their readers my way.

So, one last plea: If you value this blog and would like to see PEM’s work expand, please donate what you can. Every little bit helps.

UPDATED: Thanks also to Joe Nolan at Teen Checkup for another wonderful endorsement!

This is fundraising week here at Parents for Ethical Marketing. I’m trying to raise 10,000 dollars by Thanksgiving to continue this blog and expand PEM’s scope. It’s a modest goal, considering:

– a marketer will drop 4,000 dollars for access to data of children’s financial profiles and spending patterns; and

– marketers spend 1.4 billion dollars — per month — marketing to children.

More on why you should donate to Parents for Ethical Marketing.

The economy. The elections. This may not seem like the best time to start a fundraising campaign.

It certainly doesn’t feel like a good time to ask people for money.

But take a moment to consider this: While families across the country are tightening their belts, corporate marketers continue to manipulate children. Kids are still being told that in order to be happy, or popular, or even content, they must own the right things.

They’re told they need the right clothes. The right toys. The right books. Food and shampoo and school supplies adorned with particular characters. They’re told they must watch the right television programs and play the right computer games, which exist to sell them more of the same.

And now, like it or not, the biggest shopping — and advertising — season is upon us.

So when would be abetter time to help parents cope with the never-ending battle against corporate marketing?

I’ve been really lucky in that I’ve been able to take Parents for Ethical Marketing (PEM) this far without outside funding. In a little less than a year, more than 170 people have joined and we’ve had more than 19,000 visitors to the website. PEM’s been mentioned in the New York Times. Twice. And I’ve been a guest on radio talk shows and Internet podcasts – most recently on The Guardian’s Tech Weekly. (Read more about what PEM does.)

It’s been a good year, but now it’s time for PEM’s influence to grow.  We’d like more members. We’d like more blog readers. We’d like to take our message directly to parents (in fact, I’m speaking to my first parent group in a couple weeks). Eventually, I’d like to see free workshops provided to parents in schools, churches, and neighborhood gathering places all over the county.

Because parents need know exactly how corporate marketing affects their families.

Only then can we take the steps needed to persuade corporations to adopt responsible marketing standards and practices that sustain the health of children and families. 

That’s our mission. And by donating to Parents for Ethical Marketing, you’ll help.

PEM is proud to be a member of the recently relaunched Change.org (see last week’s Newsweek article Blogging Like the World Depended on It and this article at the Chronicle of Philanthropy). Your tax-deductible donation will be processed through Change.org’s secure server.

THANK YOU!

MOMboTV is giving $100 to the blog that refers the most readers to their site this week. Click on over to help PEM get the funds. With $100, we could send out more that 3,000 monthly newsletters including parenting strategies to raise healthy kids and fight the unwelcome corporate marketing directed at your kids, the latest research, and updates on PEM activities.

Here’s a good plact to start: How do you MOMbo?

The MOMbo team is comprised of stay at home moms, work at home moms and career moms.  We are married moms and single moms.  We are raising young children. We have raised adult children.  From our respective locations around the world, we bring our contributions to the MOMbo community. We come with an eye toward understanding and appreciation–and the desire to effectively model these values for our children.