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Consuming Kids: The Hosile Takeover of Childhood
 
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Consuming Kids: The Hosile Takeover of Childhood [Hardcover]

Susan Linn (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
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From Publishers Weekly

Like Eric Schlosser in Fast Food Nation, Linn is able to write about a subject people care about and avoid the shrillness that can make such books a chore to read. A psychologist and children's advocate, Linn is openly critical of the corporate bottom line and focuses on what will benefit children and families. Her exhaustively researched picture is of a $15 billion industry in near-total denial about the effects it has. Executives traffic in transparently self-serving rhetoric, extolling the educational value of such seemingly bland fare as Teletubbies or claiming to be developing toddlers' incipient need for control. The concept of "prenatal marketing" need not be exhaustively described to send a shiver down the spine of any mother-to-be. Linn points out that successful marketing is often in direct opposition to what's good for society. Sex, violence and sugar-packed snacks obviously hold great appeal for youngsters, and there exists, he says, no countervailing social force to effectively check their influence. Linn demonstrates how marketers research methods to make children more effective naggers-thus undermining parental authority-and TV programming executives spike the chilling metric known as "jolts per minute." Linn works hard not only to put together a truly devastating case against the marketers, but also to couch it in the most reasonable terms possible; indeed, the entire book is really an appeal to common sense: that we as a society take better care of our children. Savvy enough to avoid sounding "like someone's old maiden aunt," Linn presents a socially conscious account that deserves wide exposure.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Marketing executives have targeted children as the ultimate consumers because they are easily manipulated and able to extract dollars from their parents to satisfy manufactured desires, often against their parents' better judgment. Linn, psychologist and parent, examines how corporate America exploits children and deliberately infects them with obsessive American consumerism. Linn cites research and behind-the-scenes information on marketing strategies that include emphasis on brand names, extreme individualism, and consumerism and the increasing use of child psychologists to plumb knowledge about the vulnerabilities of children, all with a cynical disregard for their welfare. The campaigns--tie-ins between children's characters and products and fast-food meals--blur the lines between programming, literature, and commercial marketing. Linn critiques parents, herself included, for their inability to protect children from aggressive "guerilla" marketing and offers suggestions on how parents can resist their children's whining for the products they've been encouraged to want and lists resources parents can use to take public action against advertisers. An eye-opening look at marketing to children. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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5.0 out of 5 stars All parents and teachers, please read!, July 19 2004
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This review is from: Consuming Kids: The Hosile Takeover of Childhood (Hardcover)
This wonderful book tackles a huge topic concisely and sharply. Linn exposes the many ways children of all ages are marketed to by advertisers (even in our schools) for the sake of naked greed. She also does a fine job of articulating why all of this is bad for children and for society in general, and she backs it all up with evidence from psychological studies. Her tone is not shrill, but there is an urgency to this book that demands our attention; the rampant commercialism that is swallowing our children must be stopped. There is hope, if we start taking some action. Reading this book is a start.
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5.0 out of 5 stars A necessary read, July 6 2004
By 
N. Kelly "noah" (san francisco, ca) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Consuming Kids: The Hosile Takeover of Childhood (Hardcover)
In the spirit of 'Fast Food Nation', 'Consuming Kids' should be a required text for all high school and/or college students, as well as parents and educators, and anyone else who may be concerned or at least curious about how the media plays a substantial role in the way we form our values.
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5.0 out of 5 stars A good primer on how marketers manipulate children, May 20 2004
By 
Charles John Gervasi (Madison, WI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Consuming Kids: The Hosile Takeover of Childhood (Hardcover)
This book is a good short course in the shameless tactics companies use to market products to children of all ages. Linn goes "undercover" to a marketing convention and gives the reader an idea of the mindset of the typical marketing person's attitudes. Her undercover reporting along with references to industry journals show the marketing industry's complete lack of regard for how their messages affect children. The book is intentionally short on advice to parents; it's not intended as a manual for how to deal with marketing.

Linn repeatedly says how marketing to children results in parents constantly having to say "no" to things. I wonder if this is as big of a problem as the author suggests. We all have to say no constantly to choices that are pleasing but bad for us. Adults know that they must produce a good or service to get money to buy other people's goods/services. This fact of life ought to be explained to children at a very young age. Responsible adults allocate certain amounts of money to each of their needs and wants. Why not give kids an allowance of some sort. If as children they spend it on something they really don't want, it is better that they learned the lesson then than grow up to be adults thinking their existence is defined by much pricier toys. With this lesson children might learn to save their money and only spend on things they really like. They might learn that putting their money toward something they believe in is more pleasing spending it on consumer products. When I have children, I will revisit this review to see if I was hopelessly naive and optimistic about children's ability to make the right decisions on their own.

I don't have any thoughts as to how parents should deal with marketing the glorifies violence (including media relations from the US military) (...). These are age-old problems that are intensified by media technology. I think, however, that the same media technology can provide information challenging harmful marketing. I am very circumspect about Linn's suggestion of keeping computers out of kids bedrooms, especially after they have developed critical thinking skills. At some age, hopefully not to young, kids are going to be exposed to all kinds of crap and in the end it will be up to them to make the right decisions. Again, check back in 20 years to see if my take is simplistic.

In any case, Consuming Kids is worthwhile to read as a warning about mainstream companies' willingness to exploit children to sell their products.

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