Yesterday it was painful to watch holiday shoppers in the media aisle at Costco randomly buying items based on marketing over merit.
People were tossing media and toys in their cart based on wow-pow colorful packaging, “why to buy” snipes, and brand recognition with little regard for what was inside.
The folks at Truce (Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children’s Entertainment) would gag. Guess their Toy Guide needs some serious packaging and PR punch to get blasted into media hands so that it runs in every major print, broadcast and new media digital channel.
Overheard comments? “Get Baby Einstein it’ll keep him busy.” “It’s got to read or sing so she can play with it on her own.” “Anything ‘learning’ will do, who cares if they use it or not.” “This is for older kids, but they’ll grow into it.”
Next year I’m recording a podcast for counter-marketing…People need to hear themselves!
Usually when someone asks me “what we do” at Shaping Youth, I blurt out “counter-marketing.” Sometimes I go with the more formal tagline, “we’re using the power of media for positive change.”
It’s fuzzy, because it doesn’t “package” well in one tidy little box.
After all, a media consortium concerned about harmful media messages is hard to wrap your head around!
Parents need to clue in to the developmental impact of consumerism on kids, but it’s become one of our biggest empirical challenges. The buying frenzy I just witnessed can’t be countered with tips to combat pester power because the kids weren’t even present…
This is consumerism run amok from colleagues doing their job all too well, and parents being part of the problem rather than the solution.
Some parents even disdained certain media, and STILL plopped it in their ‘buy pile’:
“You KNOW that game’s annoying, your family’s gonna hate you.” “This Nickelodeon gift set is probably not even worth reading.” “I HATE this movie, but the kids think it’s hilarious!” “yeah, it’s violent, but boys will be boys.” “It’s no big deal, Bratz are the new Barbie.” Ugh. Toxic.
We’ve been marketing mindfulness to kids, I guess I need to shift my media literacy focus to target adults a bit more. Maybe Tips for Parenting in a Commercial Culture? Or some words of wisdom from ol’ Dr. Seuss:
“And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before! “Maybe Christmas,” he thought, “doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas perhaps means a little bit more!”
— How The Grinch Stole Christmas
Granted, this was not a ‘valid focus group’ as we say in the industry, because these were ‘last minute’ shoppers in a ‘big box’ retailer, obviously frenzied with holiday hoopla just wanting to ‘wrap something’ which is a sad statement on consumerism itself.
But I DO think we need to market mindfulness the same way we market everything else.
It needs to be ‘sold’ with the same persuasive techniques, fun and enthusiasm that other media use to mine kids for profit. It has to have coolness currency and ‘in the know’ power that makes messages stick.
At Shaping Youth, we use these tools all the time with kids, because they work. One 8th grader let out a rebel yell in our ‘energy drinks’ counter-marketing session the other day, and we thankfully caught it on film.
She very truthfully confessed, “If my mom tells me not to eat the junk food, I crave a candy bar; if she says too much caffeine is dangerous and makes my heart race, I’m gonna want to try RockStar or RedBull even more.”
Our message? Marketers KNOW that. And they’re counting on it.
We deconstructed the packaging right down to the copy cues, colors used, names chosen and marketing campaigns so kids could SEE how they’re being manipulated to do the very thing they think they’re rebelling about! And boy, do they get ticked.
Much like the Truth campaign did for cigarettes, Shaping Youth is doing for marketing. Kids get pretty incensed when duped.
Youth have the media savvy and capability to turn the tides and be the most impactful voices of counter-marketing out there…and frankly, WE’RE counting on it. Kids are smart and fast when it comes to mobilizing movements once they have all the facts in their hands.
So that’s my new sound-bite…
What does Shaping Youth DO? We market mindfulness.
We take the ‘question authority’ bumper sticker of life and slap it into a 21st century media context. We reinforce that what kids put into their minds is just as important as what they put in their bodies.
We remind youth that THEY have the media filter they need already. Right between their ears.
As for my own ‘mindful media’ gift-giving this holiday season?
I bought Polar Express and Inconvenient Truth at Costco…but my biggest purchases were made ‘in bulk.’
Two cases of two new books to share with parent volunteers who have helped Shaping Youth in our counter-marketing programs. Both are revealing, insightful, well-researched and easy to digest with a conversational tone. Not a whiff of pretentious falderal or preach-n-teach clucking…
Our top two picks for our parent posse this year:
Packaging Girlhood, written by Shaping Youth Board Advisors Dr. Sharon Lamb and Dr. Lyn Mikel Brown (we’ll be doing a feature on ‘pink’ marketing in January)
Appetite for Profit by Michele Simon (to give to volunteers that helped us with our “Dare to Compare, A Gross Out Game for Good Nutrition” junk food counter-marketing)
Other media we shared this season?
Consuming Kids, the Hostile Takeover of Childhood by Susan Linn
Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers by Alissa Quart
Worldchanging: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century by Alex Steffen
Subscriptions to:
Stanford Social Innovation Review
CSPI Nutrition Action Newsletter
Beyond top holiday picks using Common Sense in the kids media & marketing arena…
I found the best overall media list of books for ‘do-gooders’ and podcasts for helping humanity comes from one of my favorite BlogHer thought leaders, Britt Bravo, who writes compelling prose that serves to inspire me regularly.
Check out her blog at: “Have Fun, do Good.”
I’ll consider that my theme of the season. Signing off for awhile to enjoy my own child’s magic…Good tidings to all. ‘Have fun, do good.’
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