Thursday, March 31, 2011

Start 'em young!

Ahhh, okay. Kids are at the neighbors. I walked her dog; she took my kids. Who says I don't know how to barter??

So here's what's on my mind today. (Yippee, right? It's exciting, I know, but don't all applaud at once. It's simply deafening.)

Jack wanted to stay home yesterday. After one halfhearted, "My tummy hurts," he just gave up and said "Yeah, I'm fine, I just want to sit in my pajamas and watch TV." So I let him. It's kindergarten, and I think we all had a little bit of a birthday hangover.

Anyway, to my point. We watched a lot of TV. For the record, I am not a television person. I have never watched American Idol. The Biggest Loser doesn’t encourage me to go on a diet. I think the stories I hear about Hoarders are hilarious but I don't even know what channel it's on. Hate the Wii, hate the DS. Don’t care a bit about Mario and the Yoshi and getting in your bubble. In fact, I am constantly screaming at my children, "Screen time is OVER!! Turn off everything with a screen! Your brains are rotting!"

(This gets a little "do as I say, not as I do" because I am constantly on the computer, which, of course, has a screen. Usually I'm pretty big on being a good role model but in this case I just ignore them.)

ANYWAY (can you believe I actually haven't gotten to my point yet?), yesterday, when I watched a lot of cartoons with Jack, I noticed there are tons of commercials directed at these little viewers.

If you are to believe the timing of those commercials, the majority of kindergarteners have hemorrhoids, are in debt, need to remove age spots, and might be looking for a good lawyer after their most recent traffic altercation. They color their hair, make mashed potatoes from a box mix and have at least one ingrown toenail. The calluses on their tiny feet are out of control.

People. Really. Please. Do these advertisers not realize that the mothers are generally nowhere to be found when the kids are watching these shows? That you're not actually reaching the mothers?? My kids watch cartoons when I have something else to do. Duh. And really, is a child's endorsement of a hemorrhoid cream going to encourage any adult to run out and buy it? “Mommy, mommy, it reduces inflammation AND pain! Can we get it? Can we can we can we??”

I get the idea of marketing to kids. I hate it, but I get it. My kids couldn’t write a letter to Santa without three months of steady commercials to inspire their little brains.

So let’s get smart about it. Let’s advertise being polite! And eating vegetables! And doing your homework! And reading! And turning off the TV and throwing away the DS! Yes, what great ideas!

Yeah, okay, that will never happen. And yes, you annoying person in Idaho being critical of me, I can always just turn the television off. But do you really want your kid to be the only one who doesn't know the best way to relieve bunion pain??

I thought not.

1 comment:

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