By Jim Vining
“I need to see that movie. It will make me laugh!” shouted my 5 year old son as we drove past a local movie theater.
My first thought, “Wow, he is a great reader!”
My second thought, “Wow, the advertisers already have him.”
I knew that it was time to act. It was time to defend my children from being told what they needed to buy in order to be happy.
Then I remembered a trick that I learned from a Tony Campolo talk on Greed. It was time to start teaching my children to laugh at commercials.
Our first adventure in laughing at advertisements was simply perfect.
Our children were watching Veggie Tales on live TV, when a commercial for a “Prayer Cross” began to play. This product was an overpriced piece of cheap jewelry with the words of the Lords Prayer on it. Yet this product claimed to “help you pray to God” and to “bring you peace and hope.”
It was time to pull out the laughter (Profanity was my first reaction, but not as helpful.).
“Kids that is so funny! Do we need to buy jewelry to talk to God? No way!” “Ha, Ha, Ha!”
“We do not need that ‘prayer cross’ to get peace and hope from God!” “Ha, Ha, Ha!” “That is SO SILLY!”
The kids quickly joined in on the fun at laughing at the commercial!
We proceeded to expand the game to commercials for breakfast cereals, toys, and movies.
We now enjoy a lot of laughter at the expense of ridiculous advertisements.
Jim and Robyn and there two children live in Wauwatosa, WI. In addition to laughing at commercials, they enjoy discussing theology and culture, playing outside, and eating ice cream together. Jim is an associate pastor at Elmbrook with a focus on emerging adults.
Jim’s Blog: http://jimvining.wordpress.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jimvining
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jimvining
June 18th, 2009 - 7:27 pm
Nice. We started very young with our son along similar lines; the family response to adverts is to say, in unison, “no, advert, we don’t need that!”.
Then again, the day that Veggie Tales has adverts it in is the day to stop watching live TV.
June 23rd, 2009 - 11:41 am
Maybe I’m just overly critical, but that method seems a bit too contrived.
What I do with my kids (notice how I smoothly transition into what I think is better) is to beat them at saying, “I want that.”
A Barbie commercial comes on, and I chime in quickly, “I want that!” A Tranformers commercial comes on… “I want that.” It more indirectly has shown my children the silliness of wanting whatever is advertised. Plus it annoys my children (in a fun and playful way), which is always a bonus
September 6th, 2009 - 9:31 pm
I started with my 3 yr old with a discussion about marketing and how people will put, for example, Hello Kitty, on something so that you think that you need it. But really you don’t need it, you only like it b/c it has Hello Kitty on it. And it’s all because they want your money.
Now at 4 she’ll see branded things and say “That’s marketing mommy. I don’t want to buy that.” And then every once in a while she’ll say “I want that even tho it’s marketing”. She’s honestly beginning to see the difference between wanting something because she likes/needs it and wanting something only because it has a certain theme/brand.
I think it’s a valuable thing to teach a young child regardless of how you teach it. I kinda like the idea of laughing at commercials tho!