POL 300 Day 7: Feb 7

Think back to when you were a young kid, watching TV. What is the most memorable commercial you ever saw? Did the advertising work on you? Do you still use the product? Thinking back, how do you now feel about the way the advertisement affected you?

As a kid, one of my favorite commercials was for Lucky Charms cereal ("They're magically delicious."). I was a complete sucker for these commercials for a number of reasons such as the fact the leprechaun was in cartoon form and it had sugary goodness in every bite. Fortunately, I wised up with age and no longer eat overly sugary cereals (I'm a Kashi kind of guy these days). The commercials were very influential on me given I knew that marshmallows were sugary and tasty, and I absolutely loved watching cartoons as a kid. To say that these commercials are not geared towards kids is an absolute lie (how many adults watch cartoons?).

Imagine for a moment that you are a parent. Your children have been watching TV all morning and now you have to go to the store. You know you are in for a long trip of “mommy get me” or “daddy I want.” How do you handle the minefield that is a grocery store? Take into account not only the ads they have seen, but the product placement in the store as well.

As an educated adult, my kids would get whatever I felt was good for them. It IS okay to say no to your children. Recently, I went to a Bloomington Blaze game. One of the fans there was an extremely obese man who had an overweight daughter there with him no older than 7. She looked at him asking to buy a hot dog and he replied that they had just ate. She then went on whining for one and until, not even a minute later, she got her way. People should have more control of their children when it comes to issues like this; if I say no, that means no. Needless to say, I was fairly annoyed and disgusted with what I saw given the state of the man's health and what he was allowing to happen to his young daughter's. Regardless of whatever garbage is being marketed to your kids, you are the first line of defense in protecting them and letting them get their way is not in their interests. I'd rather listen to my kids whine about not getting their way then hear them whine later on in life that they are too fat.