Teach your kids to be consumer conscious

In this issue, Leah Dobkin, mother of three teens, writes about losing control of her kids to corporate America, a fear many parents share. Find tips on how to regain control by teaching your kids about advertising and consumerism.

| April 2008 issue

6) Make it real for your child

Parents also can help their children judge the reality behind the images in advertising by encouraging them to draw upon their personal experiences. For example, take an advertisement showing a child performing tricks on a particular brand of skateboard. Ask your child:

"If you bought that skateboard, do you think you would be able to do the tricks the boy in the ad is doing?"

"How long do you think he had to practice before he could do them?"

"What do you think would happen if you tried to do those stunts without practicing first?"

After viewing this type of an ad, talk with your child about a skill or activity that he or she has attempted to master. Whether it is staying within the lines of a coloring book or riding a two-wheeler without training wheels, reminding your child just how much work and practice was needed in order to become better at the activity will help your youngster identify realistic (and unrealistic) claims in advertising. Your child will be less likely to be misled into thinking that particular equipment, foods, or clothing can provide short-cuts to greater proficiency, self-esteem or social acceptance.

The following are additional strategies for drawing your child into the process of examining advertisements:

Red Light/Green Light
Distinguish the fantasy from the reality in a television commercial by marking it with a "red light." This might be accomplished by uttering the phrase "red light!" or holding up a drawing of a traffic light.

Stepping Out
Identify a product you have seen advertised on TV and then visit a store that has the product. Compare the television version with the actual product. Ask your child: How are they different? Which is more exciting?

A Star Is Born
Choose a product in your home, and make it "a TV star." Put the product in a box and "dress it up" as if it were going to appear on a real television. Use crayons or markers to decorate the box; shine a flashlight on the product, etc. This exercise helps your child understand the process of advertising and how products can be enhanced by various advertising techniques.

Keep a Log
Monitor the types of commercials that appear on children's programming. Help your child keep a record of how many of each type (food, toys and clothing) are shown in a given period of time.

Watch Your Language
Look for words that come up again and again in advertising. See if your child can find particular words that are used for particular types of products, like "delicious" for cereal, or "beautiful" for dolls.

Who's That Girl?
Identify the spokesperson for the product and encourage your child to speculate about why an advertiser may have chosen that particular person. How is the product made more attractive or interesting by virtue of its association with the spokesperson?

What's the Story?
Break the commercial down into the parts of its "story." Ask your child to decide which elements of the story provide information about the product and which parts are not relevant to a purchasing decision. Encourage your child to list the things he or she still needs to know after seeing the commercial.

Junior "Ad Agency"
When your child has grown comfortable with thinking about how advertisements work, ask him or her to draw and color a series of ads for a list of products, such as a breakfast cereal, dump truck, bicycle, doll and board game. Ask your child why he or she decided to present products in certain ways? What was highlighted? Are "facts or opinions" used in the ads?

Educators report that one of the most effective ways to teach children is to involve the youngsters directly in the subject that is at hand. By encouraging your children to put themselves "in the shoes" of the makers of products and their advertisers, you open up a new and exciting way for your children to think and make informed decisions. The exercises suggested here should help your children to sit up, pay attention and decide for themselves about advertisements that appear on television or in newspapers and magazines.

The Children's Advertising Review Unit of the Council of Better Business Bureaus was established in 1974 by the advertising industry to promote responsible national advertising to children and to respond to public concerns. More info: caru.org

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