Many a parent knows how hard it can be to look into a child's pleading eyes and say "no." The youth marketing industry is also keenly aware of this power, and they're doing everything they can to leverage it for huge profits.
With virtually no government oversight or public outcry, the multi-billion dollar youth marketing industry uses the latest advances in psychology and neuroscience to transform children into one of the most powerful and profitable consumer demographics in the world.
The documentary Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood, showing at the Adventure Centre Wednesday (March 24), traces the evolution and impact of this disturbing and unprecedented phenomenon, exposing the youth marketing industry's controversial tactics, and exploring the effect of hyper-consumerism on the actual lived experience of children.
Children's artist Raffi Cavourkian suggests viewers will find the message of Consuming Kids eye opening to those who up until now have complacently accepted the status quo.
"[Consuming Kids] graphically reveals a lack of corporate respect for the young. We have a moral duty to transform societal values and create a culture that respects the children with whose care we are entrusted," said Cavoukian, who lent his comments to the promotion of the documentary.
"Now is the time to call for a child-honouring protocol for commerce."
In North America, children now influence more than $700 billion in annual spending, targetted virtually from birth with sophisticated commercial appeals designed to sell everything from Hollywood merchandise and junk foods to iPods, cell phones, and the family car.
The result is that childhood itself has been commercialized.
Author Dr. Susan Linn, who penned Consuming Kids, said what parents, educators and society face in light of such heavy marketing directed toward children is unprecedented.
"This generation of children is marketed to as never before," said Linn.
"Kids are being marketed to through brand licensing, through product placement, marketing in schools, through stealth marketing, through viral marketing. There are DVDs, video games, the Internet, iPods, [and] cell phones. There are so many more ways of reaching children -there?s a brand in front of a child?s face every moment of every day."
Of course not everyone has a problem with this. Particularly not those that stand to profit, as pioneering youth marketer and professor of marketing at Texas A&M University James U. McNeal points out in one segment.
"The consumer embryo begins to develop during the first year of existence. Children begin their consumer journey in infancy. And they certainly deserve consideration as consumers at that time," McNeal said.
Cedar Valley Waldorf School presents the documentary Consuming Kids -The Commercialization of Childhood, at the Adventure Centre at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday (March 24). Admission is by donation, and a discussion will follow the film.
As principal of Cedar Valley Waldorf School, Christine Martin said she is pleased to make this documentary available to the public as part of the school's month-long Annual Giving Campaign.
"There are so many truths represented in this film and we are really pleased to be able to share something like this with the community."
