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Barbie smiles at us from the toothpaste container. Sponge-Bob plays
happily on the box of macaroni and cheese. Pizza Hut coupons are
handed out as rewards for reading in school. It's funny, branded
products are everywhere in our children's lives, but many of us,
parents, psychologists or both, probably don't even notice anymore.
According to ventriloquist/ psychologist Susan Linn, Ed.D., the
associate director of the Media Center at Boston's Judge Baker Children's
Center, a non-profit affiliated with Harvard Medical School and
Boston's Children's Hospital, we should be taking notice… and making
some changes.
The commandeering of our kids' lives by marketing companies -
from the television they watch, to the fast food restaurants where
they eat, to the malls where they shop - has altered the very fabric
of childhood. And, it should be a serious concern for all of us.
Linn has written a book called Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover
of Childhood, about the dangers of allowing our children to be the
helpless pawns of the marketing industry.
A puppet master who came to psychology through her work with children
in live performances and on shows such as "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood,"
Linn has pulled her puppets out of storage to help her speak with
adults about why children need to be protected from the marketing
industry. She spoke with New England Psychologist's Catherine
Robertson Souter about her message and the interesting methods she
uses to communicate it.
Q: You were called a "pioneer in puppet therapy" for your work
with Children's Hospital in Boston in a recent article in The Boston
Globe. How do the puppets participate in your work today?
A: I learned early on that the puppets were great tools when
I spent a year in a Head Start Program in the South End. Children
would say things to the puppets that they wouldn't say otherwise.
And when the children had puppets on their hands, it was incredibly
freeing for them.
I had put my puppets away for a while but I've recently started
using them in my presentations for adults about marketing to children
in my work with the Media Center. I also co-founded The Campaign
for Commercial-Free Childhood. We just did a briefing in Congress
for the children's caucus and we are currently sponsoring an action
to build public support for the Help America Act which includes
Sen. Harkin's (D-IA) bill that will give the FTC back the power
to regulate marketing to kids.
Q: The FTC doesn't have that power?
A: In 1978, they came out with a recommendation that marketing
to children under eight be banned. There was so much corporate pressure
in Congress that in 1980, they just rescinded the FTC's ability
to make rules around marketing to children at all. It's easier to
regulate marketing to adults than it is to regulate marketing to
children now.
Q: From what I understand, the puppetry came first in your career
and the psychology second.
A: I have earned a living for most of my life as a ventriloquist.
I began my undergraduate work in theater and then left school to
perform with the puppets.
My mother was an early childhood education specialist and she
started sending me books on children. They were just fascinating
to me - the whole notion of the inner world of children was something
that I really responded to. When I went back to school, I decided
to study psychology [at the Harvard Graduate School of Education].
Q: Have you seen much support for your message?
A: I just got back from New Orleans speaking [with the puppets]
to a group of elementary school principals. I am about to go to
Sacramento to speak at a symposium put on by a public health advocacy
organization. I have gotten very good response for these talks and
I enjoy doing them.
I get emails all the time from parents. I think people are just
fed up. One study says that 65% of Americans feel constantly bombarded
with marketing and advertising. Even the ad industry thinks that
there is a problem. Seventy-seven percent of industry executives
in a 2004 Advertising Age poll said that there is a direct link
between advertising and childhood obesity.
I think that this kind of education is essential because this all
escalated so quickly and without people noticing. People don't even
quite realize that it's going on and it's going on in ways that
they don't even know. We've moved way beyond commercials. Marketing
is in the fabric of children's lives - their education, their social
system.
Q: So, what's the future? How can this be changed?
A: It is unfair to expect parents alone to combat a $15 billion
industry. I think that health care professionals need to start educating
people from the moment that they are thinking about having children
that this is going to be an issue…and what the issue is because
many parents don't get it. They don't make the association between
a baby who is only being exposed to branded products and the pre-teen
nagging for products.
Q: What can psychologists do?
A: I think that psychologists who work with the schools and
with children need to take marketing into account. Psychologists
need to take a stand on marketing to children and on marketing in
schools - not just in their offices but out in the community as
well.
I also think that we need to talk to graduate students about the
ethics of using psychology to work with marketing companies. The
advertising industry does everything they can to come between parents
and children. They work with child psychologists to hone their messages
to exploit children's vulnerabilities. What the marketing industry
has done is to turn child development theory on its head. For parents
and caretakers, children's vulnerabilities are cause for care and
concern but for the youth marketing industry they are weaknesses
to be exploited.
Q: Finally, what specifically does marketing do to children?
A: It's a factor in a lot of public health concerns. It's a
factor in underage drinking. It's a factor in underage smoking.
It's a factor in childhood obesity - food is one of the primary
products that is being marketed to children. It's a factor in eating
disorders. It's a factor in precocious and irresponsible sexuality.
It's a factor in youth violence. It's a factor in excessive materialism.
It's a factor in family stress.
It's not the sole cause. But it's a factor in all of those issues.
It's also a factor in limiting and decreasing children's opportunities
for creative and expressive play. Children play less creatively
with toys that are linked to media.
When I do workshops with adults, I do my best to have only generic
characters - a horse, a dog. But somehow I acquired a Cookie Monster
puppet. When I hand out the puppets, everyone's creating these characters
until we get to the Cookie Monster person.
The Cookie Monster is always the Cookie Monster.
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