Kid Kustomers

Schlosser, E. (2011). Kid kustomers. S. Cohen (Ed) 50 Essays. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's

Link: https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=1LpHV1B4YbRzGijHz-n6ernIfZteRIPxNDyPkOnYdwaQ&sort=name&layout=list&pid=0BxO7MLwhDXi7MWZjZTEzY2MtZDI2Ni00MGQ0LWFjNDAtYTYwMmJlNzVkOTIz&cindex=6

The topic of Schlosser’s essay is how the advertising industry uses kids as a target for their commercials. He explains that kids are not mature enough to understand that not every commercial is true. Advertisers benefit from that and show children what they want to see in order to want the product. Of course kids are sometimes too young to purchase the product by themselves, so they use nagging to get what they want. Even though the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) tried to ban television commercials, changes haven’t been made in order to protect our kids. According to the author, (Schlosser, 2011, p. 357) “outside of school, the typical American child spends more time watching TV than doing any other activity except sleeping.” Eric Schlosser collected his information from a book called “Kids As Customers” (1992) by James U. McNeal. Furthermore Schlosser quotes a marketer, a sociologist, the head of the Federal Trade Commission and finally former US president Ronald Reagan.
I think this essay serves as a wake-up-call for parents. Since kids can’t protect themselves from misleading advertising, parents should use the opportunity to encourage them to do other activities than watching TV.