Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood recently revamped its website. One of the new features includes a fact sheet that provides the following information regarding modern marketing aimed at children (with citations to primary sources): Marketing directly to children is a factor in the childhood obesity epidemic. Marketing also encourages…
Life was good today. I was able to spend the morning with my two young daughters at Forest Park, where we smacked around racket balls and had a lot of laughs. From there I went to work, where I felt like progress was being made on difficult cases (this is…
RJ Matson, Roll Call Mike Lester, The Rome News-Tribune Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune Postura Climatica Tab, The Calgary Sun The G-8 Dario Castillejos, El Imparcial de México Televictim Angel Boligan, El Universal, Mexico City [Admin note: All Cartoons are being published at DI with full permission by Cagle Cartoons]
On June 7, 2008, I had the opportunity to discuss the commercialization of American children with Josh Golin, the Associate Director of Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood.
Josh’s two-part interview was sponsored by—no one. Isn’t this total lack of commercial sponsorship a pleasant change of pace?
People who warn about the commercialization of our children sound quaint or even shrill to most other Americans. After all, how could it possibly be a bad thing to buy lots and lots of things for our children, to “spoil” them?
As Josh indicates in this interview, there is now scientific data substantiating that buying children more things is harming them. More stuff (and the anticipation of yet more stuff) leads to a warped set of attitudes and priorities, as well as obesity and attention disorders.
I enjoy talking with Josh because he makes his case clearly and enthusiastically. You can see this for yourself by clicking on the two videos of his interview. What CCFC offers in place of a chokingly endless stream of products is common sense: children can thrive without owning the toys hawked by merchandisers. Instead of more toys, children need more creative play and more time developing real life relationships with other children and adults in their communities.
Part I - Interview of Josh Golin
We all know that American middle class children don’t need most of possessions they have (they are a lot like their parents in this regard). Because there is a limited number of hours in a child’s life, giving children more of what they don’t need leaves them with less time and energy for the sorts of things they do need, such as physical fitness, healthy relationships and creative play.
Last summer, I found myself dancing as an unpaid extra in a reality show. I'd been a dancing extra in a TV movie back in '98, and at least got lunch and minimum wage. This time I not only did it for free, but I had to sign a non-disclosure…
Hello, I invite you to subscribe to Dangerous Intersection by entering your email below. You will have the option to receive emails notifying you of new posts once per week or more often.