A few days ago, I received an e-mail from Adrianna Barbaro, asking me if I would be interested in reviewing a film she made as a producer for the Media Education Foundation. The title of the film is Consuming Kids and it addresses the onslaught of merchandizing, to children and youth, of a wide variety of potentially harmful products. As this is a topic of great interest to me, I told her I would be happy to review the film. When I received the DVD, and played on my computer, I was alternatively depressed and angered. What was most depressing and distressing was the concerted effort on the part merchandisers and advertisers to turn children into consumers starting in infancy. I was also angry and disappointed to learn that many of my fellow psychologists, and colleagues in allied professions, were involved in these practices. They are researching children and youth to discover which products and advertising strategies are most appealing to the young. Whether the products are healthy, and the advertising ethical, seems of only secondary or of no, concern.

This full court effort to rear children to become consumers is the result of the anti-regulation zeal of the Reagan era in the US. In 1980, Congress passed legislation removing all limits to what was sold to children and how it was sold. From a four billion dollar a year industry in 1980, the child consumer products business now does more than seventy billion dollars a year. Children are not only sold to, they are taught how to get their parents to buy products, the so called nag factor. Children are given many examples of how, if they nag long and hard enough, their parents will give in. As to the sales pitch, products are marketed not on the basis of their value, but rather because of their social appeal. If you own certain products you are “cool” and if you don’t have them, you are not. Merchandisers have extended the nag strategy to get children to go after their parents to buy particular brands of cars, televisions and computers. The aim is to get children to convince their parents that some brands are “cooler” than others.

If corrupting children’s values were not enough, their health is also being compromised. In the absence of any regulation of food products sold to children, they are bombarded with ads that celebrate cereals and snack foods high in fat, salt, and sugar. As a result the number of obese children is skyrocketing and Type II Diabetes among the young is reaching epidemic proportions. It is also very likely that the increase in the incidence of ADHD and other learning problems is closely related to the long hours children spend watching television and playing computer games.

Those in the industry defend their practices and products saying that it is the parent’s responsibility to insure their children’s health and well being. Certainly parents have a role to play, but it is almost impossible to protect children when the environment is so pervasively toxic. Neither children or parents are prepared, or able, to defend themselves against a juggernaut of advertising that exploits knowledge of child development for the purpose of selling goods. Most other advanced societies have regulations protecting children from potentially harmful advertising and products. These countries realize that merchandisers and advertisers cannot be allowed to go unchecked.

Deregulation, which ignores the role of greed in human affairs, has created the current economic crises. The greed on Wall Street has done extraordinary damage to our own financial institutions, and to those of other countries. Yet the damage done by the greed of Wall Street cannot compare to the damage being done to our children by the greed of Madison Avenue. Economic downturns can eventually be corrected, but the damage done to our children may be irreversible. That is why Consuming Kids is such an important film and why it should receive wide distribution.