Ooh, I want to click that Get More Fans button!

If it’s hard for me to resist, can you imagine how a child’s underdeveloped brain reacts?

If you’re on Facebook, please consider joining — or asking a friend to join — Parents for Ethical Marketing. Don’t make me click that button.

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. . . the connections between princess-style narcissism and subjectivities of consumption is fascinating, by which I am referring to the bit about girls being taught that they are the “centre of the world” but also that their position as such is mediated through (or even dependent on) the consumption and display of commodity goods (clothes, accessories, etc.).

BPA Industry Manipulates Scientific Studies at MomsRising.org. It’s a sad truth: ” . . . anyone with an agenda can find research to support that agenda.” Sadder that industries fund “research” in order to continue meeting their profit margins at the expense of our health. Sound familiar, Minnesotans? Last year our Governor Pawlenty vetoed legislation to remove harmful chemicals from children’s toys based on his review of such research. Fortunately, then-President Bush signed federal legislation into law shortly after that.

New Legislation Regulates Tobacco Marketing. We’ll see how it is enforced. From The Center for Media and Child Health.

Are you on Facebook? So is Parents for Ethical Marketing! And did you know that you can start a discussion, post links, comments, and events and share your thoughts about marketing to kids on our Facebook page? Now, you can also read blog posts from Corporate Babysitter. It’s a great place to share with other members. Please join us!

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Highlights include:

– Royal Doulton figurine of Diana in her wedding dress;
– Her magical royal wedding; and
– The historical significance of her role as Princess of Wales and the impact she had through that role on the fashion industry and charitable landscape.

Highlights will probably not include her battle with anorexia.

And if you haven’t yet, go to Dina Goldstein’s website to see her Fallen Princesses project. She explains:

The project was inspired by my observation of three-year-old girls, who were developing an interest in Disney’s Fairy tales. As a new mother I have been able to get a close up look at the phenomenon of young girls fascinated with Princesses and their desire to dress up like them. The Disney versions almost always have sad beginning, with an overbearing female villain, and the end is predictably a happy one. The Prince usually saves the day and makes the victimized young beauty into a Princess.

As a young girl, growing up abroad, I was not exposed to Fairy tales. These new discoveries lead to my fascination with the origins of Fairy tales. I explored the original brothers Grimm’s stories and found that they have very dark and sometimes gruesome aspects, many of which were changed by Disney. I began to imagine Disney’s perfect Princesses juxtaposed with real issues that were affecting women around me, such as illness, addiction and self-image issues.

Thanks to all who brought Fallen Princesses to my attention.

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During his campaign, President Obama acknowledged that he is among the parents struggling against an onslaught of corporate marketing that hurts our children—and makes it harder for parents to parent.

Today, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood sent a Father’s Day appeal to President Obama, signed by over twenty five hundred parents, petitioning him to launch a systematic review of the regulations on marketing to children to determine if they offer sufficient protection for twenty-first century families.  The petition, which was also signed by professionals who work with children and families, urges the President to direct the Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission to evaluate current policies to determine whether or not they adequately protect children.

Since the 1980s, when children’s television was deregulated and Congress restricted the Federal Trade Commission’s authority to regulate marketing to children, the amount of advertising and marketing targeting children has exploded in volume and sophistication. The digital revolution and increasingly miniaturized technology allow marketers today to expand their reach far beyond television and to insert their brands in children’s lives in ways that were inconceivable just a few decades ago.  Taking unfair advantage of children’s developmental inability to understand the persuasive intent of advertising messages, unregulated marketing is training children to be consumers rather than healthy, well-rounded citizens. Many parents felt strongly enough about the commercialization of their children’s lives that they added their own personal appeals to the letter. 

(more…)

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“The food industry is always saying, ‘We’re giving people want they want; that’s why we’re giving you chicken nuggets, burgers and fries for your kids,’ ” said Leann L. Birch, director of the Center for Childhood Obesity Research at Penn State. “That’s not really true. If kids are given different options and if parents make them available and let them choose some of those things, I think quite often we see you do get shifts in eating.”

So much for the old supply/demand argument when it comes to children’s marketing.

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