Learning Target(s):
- I can examine how marketing is used to manipulate me.
- I can draw connections between making photographs and marketing.
Announcement(s):
- Report Cards have been mailed
- BRING CAMERAS/CHARGED CELL PHONES EVERY DAY NOW
- We MAY go out tomorrow
- We will NOT go out Monday (AR testing)
- We will LIKELY go out next Tuesday (Thursday schedule) and Wednesday
Agenda :
- Consuming Kids:
- Consuming Kids throws desperately needed light on the practices of a relentless multi-billion dollar marketing machine that now sells kids and their parents everything from junk food and violent video games to bogus educational products and the family car.
- Introduction:
- What do you think children’s heavy media use might be taking away from? Should we be concerned about this? Why?
- Part 2: The Floodgates Open
- How has deregulation contributed, specifically, to these changes in marketing?
- Part 3: By Any Means Necessary
- How does branding beloved children’s characters serve the interests of marketers? How does this process work, specifically? What kind of psychological, social, or behavioral impact do you think this might have on the targeted child?
- Part 4: UNDER THE MICROSCOPE: [P3, P5, P4]
- Do you feel that advanced research techniques exploit children’s vulnerabilities, by definition, or do you think a case can be made that marketers are simply trying to find out what kids want in order to better meet their needs and desires? Do you think this kind of market research is ethical? Professionally responsible? Why or why not, specifically?
- Part 5: BRAND NEW WORLD: [P1]
- One of the dominant themes of children’s marketing today is the selling of cool, as marketers have shifted from the selling of products to the selling of emotional meanings tied to brands. How do you think marketers draw on or play into kids’ normal social interactions with their peers in order to make their appeals effective?
- Part 6: CRADLE TO GRAVE:
- As marketers continue to sell their products down the age scale, what gendered messages are young girls and boys receiving about what it means to be a man or a woman? How are gender stereotypes commercialized in children’s media and toys? What impact does this have on children’s play, and on how kids shape their identities and understanding of the world?
- Part 7: REWIRING CHILDHOOD:
- Why is play important? In what specific ways are media threatening children’s play? How, precisely, are children’s play and creativity limited and threatened by media exposure, commercial programming, and character tie-ins?
- Part 8: OUR FUTURE:
- How has children’s media led to measurable declines in children’s health? What correlations or connections can be made? Should the commercialization of childhood be considered a public health problem?
- Part 8B: OUR FUTURE 2:
- What role and responsibility do you feel parents should have when it comes to addressing the commercialization of childhood? Is it fair to expect them to cope, on their own, with a billion dollar industry? Or should there be policies in place that help parents protect children from marketing?
- Part 8C: OUR FUTURE 3:
- Why do you think the U.S. government has not taken an active role in protecting children from commercial culture? Do you see a difference between this issue and child labor laws or laws mandating that children wear bike helmets or protect children from the marketing of tobacco?
Resources for further study
- The Rules Now for Children's Television
- Children's Advocates Media Watchers - basically neutral politically
- Progressive Media Watchers - partisan organization focused primarily on the news
- Conservative Media Watchers - partisan organization focused primarily on the news
