Consuming Kids Movie Guide.

On a separate piece of paper, answer the following questions while or after viewing the video. INTRODUCTION: Choose 2 questions to answer. 1) How have childrens purchasing power and influence increased, and why? 2) What factors would you attribute to children spending more time with media? What do you think childrens heavy media use might be taking away from? Do you see reasons for concern? 3) How have new technologies like the internet, iPods, cell phones, and 24-hour childrens TV programming made children more available and vulnerable to commercial messages? 4) Do you think its reasonable to believe that people can be transformed, from the earliest ages, into life-long consumers? Do you feel that there are, or should be, societal or moral reservations about marketers approaching children at such early ages? THE FLOODGATES OPEN: Choose 2 questions to answer. 1) According to the film, how does marketing to children today differ from the 50s, 60s, and 70s? Can you think of other ways it may have changed? 2) How has deregulation contributed, specifically, to these changes in marketing? 3) What do you think it is about kids, specifically, that makes them such a ripe demographic for marketers? 4) Do you feel the Federal Trade Commission should be in the business of regulating unfair and deceptive marketing to children? How about marketing to children, more generally, whether its deceptive or not? 5) With the increase and growth of media-linked toys and products, there has been a rapid growth in childrens consumption. Do you think we should be concerned about this? Why or why not? Is there special reason for concern regarding the use of licensed characters to sell junk food and other products to children? BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY: Choose 2 questions to answer. 1) How does branding beloved childrens characters serve the interests of marketers? How does this process work, specifically? What kind of psychological, social, or behavioral impact do you think this might have on the targeted child? 2) What is the difference between product placement and regular advertising? In your view, does product placement in childrens films, family programs, or video games qualify as deceptive advertising? 3) In what new ways might new technologies, like the internet and cell phones, be making children more vulnerable to advertising? Do you see these advertising tools as somehow different from advertising vehicles used in the past (like television, radio, and billboards)? Explain what you mean, specifically. 4) Do you feel the government should oversee and regulate these advertising methods, and place some limits on advertisers? If so, why? And what types of regulations do you think could fairly be put in place? If not, why not? Why might you support regulations in other areas (regulations against children drinking, smoking, etc.) but not in this case? 5) According to the film, and your own understanding of this phenomenon, what factors have contributed to the increasing commercialization of our schools? How do you think the presence of advertising in schools relates to the overall mission of public education? Can a case be made that it somehow strengthens and advances the goals of public education? Can a case be made that it fundamentally contradicts and undermines these goals? UNDER THE MICROSCOPE: Choose 2 questions to answer. How do you think the contributions of psychologists, anthropologists, sociologists, and other behavioral scientists have affected marketing to children? Do you think that youth marketing would be as successful without these new intrusive research methods? Why or why not? 2) Do you feel that advanced research techniques exploit childrens vulnerabilities, by definition, or do you think a case can be made that marketers are simply trying to find out what kids want in order to better meet their needs and desires? 3) Do you think this kind of market research is ethical? Professionally responsible? Why or why not, specifically?

4) Do you agree that marketing schemes like The Girls Intelligence Agency undermine or exploit important relationships in childrens lives? 5) When asked about the ethics of marketing to children, Lucy Hughes, a child marketer, responds that she is just doing her job. Should child marketers and corporations have to address the ethical side of marketing to children? Should they be held responsible for the potentially negative consequences of their professional approaches? If not, why not? If so, why? On what grounds? And by whom? BRAND NEW WORLD: Choose 3 to answer. One of the dominant themes of childrens marketing today is the selling of cool, as marketers have shifted from the selling of products to the selling of emotional meanings tied to brands. How do you think marketers draw on or play into kids normal social interactions with their peers in order to make their appeals effective? 2) Do you think these advertising appeals might, in turn, end up affecting the way kids actually interact? If so, how? Do you see evidence of that in your own life? 3) How does the marketing of cool and other expensive branded products correlate with kids attitudes toward money, status, and materialism? 4) What types of values are being sold to children in commercial culture? What role do you think marketing has played in shaping childrens values and aspirations? 5) What are the effects of material values on children, their relationships, and society more generally? 6) Are the values and messages that marketers tend to push at odds with the kinds of values we expect parents to instill in kids? Do you think this might make parents job more difficult? Might it complicate the common claim that its up to parents and nobody else to make sure kids are looked after and cared for as much as possible? Explain. CRADLE TO GRAVE: Choose 2 questions to answer. 1) What are some specific examples of age compression? What do you see as some potential risks or threats posed by this strategy to childrens health and well-being? Why do you think marketers use this tactic? 2) As marketers continue to sell their products down the age scale, what gendered messages are young girls and boys receiving about what it means to be a man or a woman? How are gender stereotypes commercialized in childrens media and toys? What impact does this have on childrens play, and on how kids shape their identities and understanding of the world? 3) Do you see reasons for concern with the branding of babies? Why do you think marketers are so keen on making character and/or brand associations so early in life? 4) Think about products or characters you were exposed to at an early age. How do you feel about those characters now? Would you purchase products with those characters for your own children? Do you feel there is a difference now? Why or why not? REWIRING CHILDHOOD: Choose 2 questions to answer. 1) Although the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under 2 years old should not be exposed to any screen media, we have seen an explosion in the amount of infant programming and DVDs purporting to be educational. What factors would you attribute to the rise of this new market? What are the potential concerns about media use among very young children? 2) Since scientific research evidence suggests that children under the age of 30 months cannot learn anything from an electronic screen and that, in fact, watching screens may be harmful to the developing brain do you feel it is irresponsible for the creators and promoters of infant DVDs and television programs to encourage parents to expose their children to media at such an early age? Do you feel there should be regulations on this kind of thing, especially on industry claims? Why or why not? 3) Why is play important? In what specific ways are media threatening childrens play? How, precisely, are childrens play and creativity limited and threatened by media exposure, commercial programming, and character tie-ins? 4) Childrens consumption levels are rising at an alarming rate. What impact will rampant consumerism have on childrens well-being and on society as a whole? Is there reason for concern? Are there environmental concerns attached to childrens consumption?

OUR FUTURE: Choose 3 questions to answer. 1) Dou you feel the First Amendment should protect corporations and the youth marketing industry? Why or why not? 2) What role and responsibility do you feel parents should have when it comes to addressing the commercialization of childhood? Is it fair to expect them to cope, on their own, with a billion dollar industry? Or should there be policies in place that help parents protect children from marketing? 3) Why do you think the U.S. government has not taken an active role in protecting children from commercial culture? Do you see a difference between this issue and child labor laws or laws mandating that children wear bike helmets or protect children from the marketing of tobacco? 4) Do you feel that voluntary guidelines, or so-called self-regulation, by the youth marketing industry offers enough protection for children? Are self-regulations working? Or do you see a need for stricter policies and regulations that limit marketing that directly targets children? 5) How has childrens media led to measurable declines in childrens health? What correlations or connections can be made? Should the commercialization of childhood be considered a public health problem? 6) Do you agree that we have become a nation that places a lower priority on teaching our children how to thrive socially, intellectually, even spiritually, than on training them to consume? Explain why or why not. 7) Where do we go from here? What are some ways that a less commercial childhood experience can be constructed? What actions need to be taken and on what levels?