Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne, Lisa M. Ross Page A
Authors: Kim John Payne, Lisa M. Ross
Ads: Link
friends, but my parents are truly taken aback, literally flabbergasted.”
As David Elkind points out, it’s only been in the past fifty years that inexpensive, mass-produced (overwhelmingly plastic) toys have flooded onto the market “in mass quantities and seemingly endless variety.” 1 In his history of play, cultural historian Howard Chudacoff sets 1955 as a watershed year. 2 The Mickey Mouse Club provided a powerful new venue for toymakers, and for the first time Mattel began advertising a toy—the Thunder Burp gun—outside of the Christmas season. Almost overnight, Chudacoff asserts, children’s play became less focused on activities, and more on the things involved, the toys themselves. In researching her book Born to Buy , sociologist Juliet Schor found that the average American child receives seventy toys a year. 3 No longer reserved for special occasions, toys have become staples of family life, appropriate as purchases any day of the year.
Ubiquitous, too. A dad in one of my environment workshops was bemoaning how toys are no longer just in toy stores; they’re everywhere he goes. “It’s like walking through a minefield, any time I’m trying to get errands done with the kids. The gas station, the grocery store … There are always toys, always right by the counter where you’re standing, ready to pay. The other day we ran into the post office, and even there … There were little stuffed animals for sale. Who would want a little postal animal, for heaven’s sake? My daughter. As soon as she saw them.” Toys are everywhere, and nearly everything a child might need or use is now marketed as a toy: flashing shoelaces; transforming soap; character-driven school supplies, vitamins, and bandages; books with musical microchips; even scratch-and-sniff clothing.
In the workshop discussions, I’ve noticed an interesting progression, one that rarely fails to unfold. Early on, there are finger-pointing comments about which one in the couple is the most avid consumer, the biggest “pushover.” A mom might share how her husband “bribes” the kids with toys for good behavior as the husband (who really didn’t want to come to this lecture anyway!) crosses and uncrosses his legs, shiftingabout on the metal auditorium chair. The comments are more pointed, of course, when the targeted spouse is not there. But invariably, as parents trade stories, they come to acknowledge that the weight of consumer pressure is huge, and felt by all, moms and dads alike.
Companies have found that they can enlist our children in their marketing efforts. By targeting kids directly, they can use “pester power,” meaning a child’s ability to nag their parents into purchasing things they might not otherwise buy, or even know about. Just how powerful is “pester power”? While couples may differ over whether Mom or Dad is more susceptible, researchers have found that children directly impact more than $286 billion of family purchases annually. 4 Marketers have more than taken note, increasing their spending on advertising to children from $100 million in 1983 to more than $16 billion a year now. And it’s working. The average ten-year-old has memorized three hundred to four hundred brands, and research has shown that by the age of two, kids can recognize a specific brand on the store shelves and let you know—with words or the ever-effective point-and-scream—that they want it. 5
Clearly nobody is completely immune to the marketing forces arrayed against us. Yet the less exposure a child has to media, especially television, the less vulnerable they will be to advertising’s intentional and unintentional messages. In her wonderful book The Shelter of Each Other , Mary Pipher discusses some of the unspoken lessons that advertisements teach us, and particularly our children:
to be unhappy with what we have
“I am the center of the universe and I want what I want now”
products can solve complex human problems, and meet
As David Elkind points out, it’s only been in the past fifty years that inexpensive, mass-produced (overwhelmingly plastic) toys have flooded onto the market “in mass quantities and seemingly endless variety.” 1 In his history of play, cultural historian Howard Chudacoff sets 1955 as a watershed year. 2 The Mickey Mouse Club provided a powerful new venue for toymakers, and for the first time Mattel began advertising a toy—the Thunder Burp gun—outside of the Christmas season. Almost overnight, Chudacoff asserts, children’s play became less focused on activities, and more on the things involved, the toys themselves. In researching her book Born to Buy , sociologist Juliet Schor found that the average American child receives seventy toys a year. 3 No longer reserved for special occasions, toys have become staples of family life, appropriate as purchases any day of the year.
Ubiquitous, too. A dad in one of my environment workshops was bemoaning how toys are no longer just in toy stores; they’re everywhere he goes. “It’s like walking through a minefield, any time I’m trying to get errands done with the kids. The gas station, the grocery store … There are always toys, always right by the counter where you’re standing, ready to pay. The other day we ran into the post office, and even there … There were little stuffed animals for sale. Who would want a little postal animal, for heaven’s sake? My daughter. As soon as she saw them.” Toys are everywhere, and nearly everything a child might need or use is now marketed as a toy: flashing shoelaces; transforming soap; character-driven school supplies, vitamins, and bandages; books with musical microchips; even scratch-and-sniff clothing.
In the workshop discussions, I’ve noticed an interesting progression, one that rarely fails to unfold. Early on, there are finger-pointing comments about which one in the couple is the most avid consumer, the biggest “pushover.” A mom might share how her husband “bribes” the kids with toys for good behavior as the husband (who really didn’t want to come to this lecture anyway!) crosses and uncrosses his legs, shiftingabout on the metal auditorium chair. The comments are more pointed, of course, when the targeted spouse is not there. But invariably, as parents trade stories, they come to acknowledge that the weight of consumer pressure is huge, and felt by all, moms and dads alike.
Companies have found that they can enlist our children in their marketing efforts. By targeting kids directly, they can use “pester power,” meaning a child’s ability to nag their parents into purchasing things they might not otherwise buy, or even know about. Just how powerful is “pester power”? While couples may differ over whether Mom or Dad is more susceptible, researchers have found that children directly impact more than $286 billion of family purchases annually. 4 Marketers have more than taken note, increasing their spending on advertising to children from $100 million in 1983 to more than $16 billion a year now. And it’s working. The average ten-year-old has memorized three hundred to four hundred brands, and research has shown that by the age of two, kids can recognize a specific brand on the store shelves and let you know—with words or the ever-effective point-and-scream—that they want it. 5
Clearly nobody is completely immune to the marketing forces arrayed against us. Yet the less exposure a child has to media, especially television, the less vulnerable they will be to advertising’s intentional and unintentional messages. In her wonderful book The Shelter of Each Other , Mary Pipher discusses some of the unspoken lessons that advertisements teach us, and particularly our children:
to be unhappy with what we have
“I am the center of the universe and I want what I want now”
products can solve complex human problems, and meet
Similar Books
