(Original post: June 14, 2019)
Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood
{ www.kanopy.com/product/consuming-kid }
“With virtually no government or public outcry, the multi-billion dollar youth marketing industry has been able to use the latest advances in psychology, anthropology, and neuroscience to transform American children into one of the most powerful and profitable consumer demographics in the world. American kids now influence an estimated $700 billion in annual spending, targeted virtually from birth with a relentless bombardment of sophisticated commercial appeals designed to sell everything from Hollywood merchandise and junk foods to iPods, cell phones, the family car and vacations. The result is that childhood itself has been commercialized.”
- Running Time: 67 mins
- Year: 2008
- Filmmakers: Adriana Barbaro, Jason Young, Jeremy Earp, Sut Jhally
Subjects:
- Health > Child Health
- Media & Communications > Marketing, Advertising & PR
- Business > Economics & Globalization
- Social Sciences > Sociology
©2019 Kanopy
Homewood eServices, Information and Media Literacy, and Kanopy
For those interested in the reasons for promoting these materials:
The presentation logic is response. Young people are surrounded and instructed by advertising. It makes little sense to subject them to such powerful influences without education about marketing and its many forms; how it can be helpful, and potentially harmful.
Caveat emptor: how can the buyer know and be wary without appropriate information? So where will this information come from? The solution to this problem is anything but obvious. This is the logic of public sector response. As long as present conditions persist, where information and media literacy instruction reaches a very limited US group, there is a clear need for additional sources and educational opportunities; for materials to balance the immense effort to shape the buying practices of the young — and for adults as well.
Click the following link to start: Kanopy film streaming
