Do you ever feel helpless in the face of the massive advertising campaigns directed at your children?
While watching television, our family has found a way to educate our children about the advertising methods used in commercials. We play a game called “What Are They Trying to Sell Us?”
Whenever a commercial comes on the air, we ask our kids to tell us what’s being sold, and we also ask what methods are being used to convince us to buy the products. The kids love this game because the answer is not always obvious. Sometimes the commercials are subtle, and it can be challenging for young children to identify what’s being sold.
By becoming aware of the methods used, our children are finding themselves amused at attempts to convince them they will be more appealing, smarter, etc., by purchasing various items. Rather than passively watching television commercials, this game helps teach that commercials are trying to manipulate people’s behavior through the media.
By becoming aware of the subtleties of advertising, children and adults alike can become stronger to withstand the commercial onslaught in our daily lives.
We don’t pay for cable, so our kids see very few ads. We don’t have a TV antenna either, so all we watch are DVDs, which mainly have commercials for other DVDs. Exception: once there was a commercial for Disneyland…grrr! Still, our kids see far fewer commercials than most of their peers.
Eventually we will have to teach them your “What are they trying to sell us?” game, but for now, ignorance is contented bliss!
I love this idea. We usually DVR shows so we can skip commercial but occasionally we site down to watch a live show. I will definitely use this idea. It’s a great way to make children think beyond what they see.