Who we are is what we buy
 Manifest and Latent functions
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◦ Manifest function defined
◦ Latent function defined
◦ Examples
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“childhood” as we think of it is a 20th
century conception
Today’s children have more involvement
with the “adult worlds”
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 Toddlers and tiarras
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Can we “escape” culture?
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Kids as “
”
◦ “Marketers openly refer to parents as
‘gatekeepers’ whose efforts to protect their
children form commercial pressures must be
circumvented so that those children, in the rather
chilling terms used by the markets, and be
‘captured, owned, and branded.”
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Schools are turning to corporations and
advertising to meet funding needs…
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Kids purchased $6.1 billion in 1989
…by 2002, they purchased $30 billion
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…older kids spend even more (approx $101
per teen)
Rising numbers reflect rise in “treating
children like adults”
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Kids know most major “brands” by age 6
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Children as “targets”
How kids spend their time – then and today
◦ Table 1 p. 31
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The problems:
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 ADHD?
 Anxiety
 depression
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Identified “needs” targeted by
marketers
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 Marketing is targeted to boys or girls
(except for food)
 Boys want “
”
 Girls want “
”
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◦ Sensory stimulation
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◦ Overcoming fears
The dominant theme of children’s
marketing
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 Cool is
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◦ Versatile, but some themes emerge
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Cool is
◦ Versatile, but some themes emerge
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 The moving of “hip hop” into the mainstream
 What’s a “juggalo” (“juggalette”)?
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The social construction of childhood
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 What is “tween,” anyway?
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Using scientific methodology to learn
how we decide what to use, buy, eat,
drink, etc.
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A University of PA study finds that
heavy television watchers have their
view of the world shaped by what they
see on tv…
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Other studies show:
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What do kids understand about ads?
◦ The marketer’s view
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When can they “identify” an ad?
◦ Most research says by
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When can they “understand” the purpose of
an ad?
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Do ads lead to purchases
◦ The result of one experiment by Stanford med
school
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Parents vs. Marketers
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What are the responsibilities of being
a parent?
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Parents are trapped, too…
 Making
inferences
 Rival causes
 Ecological fallacy
 Fallacy of the perfect solution
 Biases in the argument; the role of
meaning and taking sides
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The loss of community
The trouble of basing an economy on
consumption alone
Two treadmills
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The health impacts of consumption
◦ Food, stuff, and the environment
 How do we get all this stuff, and where
does it go when we’re done?
◦ Cancer, anyone?
 We
are all connected!
 Indicator species – birds, fish,
whales
 “At what point does preliminary
evidence of harm become
definitive evidence of harm?” (p 9)
 Some
carcinogens are natural, but
many more we have created
 Everyone has been exposed
 Cancer rates in general are rising
 Low doses of common chemicals
have caused cancers in lab
animals.
 Role of cancer on human cells
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Limitations
◦ Role of carcinogens is inferred
◦ Release of carcinogens as an
“uncontrolled experiment” (32)
◦ No control group, exposures “are
uncontrolled and multiple.”
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Rates up 22% between 1973 – 2000,
though death rates were falling.
◦ Leukemia (+ 35%)
◦ Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (+ 33%)
◦ Soft tissue cancers (+ 50%)
◦ Kidney cancer (+ 45%)
◦ Brain and nervous system tumors (+ 44%)
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“…hard to blame children’s cancers on
dangerous lifestyle choices.”
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Childhood cancers are “consistently
associated” with parental exposure to paint,
petroleum products, solvents, and
pesticides
Externalities
 What happens to public land?
 The “Tragedy of the Commons”
 Social conflict over resources
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What is progress?
 What is its limits?
 How much is enough?
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