Who we are is what we buy Manifest and Latent functions

◦Manifest function defined◦Latent function defined◦Examples

Conspicuous Consumption

“childhood” as we think of it is a 20th century conception

Today’s children have more involvement with the “adult worlds”◦ ◦ ◦ ◦

Toddlers and tiarras Can we “escape” culture?

Children and development

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.”

Schools are turning to corporations and advertising to meet funding needs…◦

Consuming Kids

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”◦

Kids know most major “brands” by age 6

Consuming kids

Children as “targets” How kids spend their time – then and today

◦ Table 1 p. 31 The problems:

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◦ ADHD? Anxiety depression

Consuming kids

Identified “needs” targeted by marketers◦ Marketing is targeted to boys or girls

(except for food) Boys want “ ” Girls want “ ”

◦ ◦Sensory stimulation◦ ◦Overcoming fears

Consuming kids

The dominant theme of children’s marketing◦

Cool is◦Versatile, but some themes emerge

The Merchants of “Cool”

Cool is◦Versatile, but some themes emerge

The moving of “hip hop” into the mainstream

What’s a “juggalo” (“juggalette”)?

The Merchants of “Cool”

The social construction of childhood◦ What is “tween,” anyway?

Using scientific methodology to learn how we decide what to use, buy, eat, drink, etc.◦ ◦ ◦

The “cool hunters”

A University of PA study finds that heavy television watchers have their view of the world shaped by what they see on tv…◦ ◦

Other studies show:◦ ◦

The evidence

What do kids understand about ads?◦ The marketer’s view

When can they “identify” an ad?◦ Most research says by

When can they “understand” the purpose of an ad?◦ ◦

Do ads lead to purchases◦ The result of one experiment by Stanford med

school

The evidence

Parents vs. Marketers◦

◦ What are the responsibilities of being a parent?◦

Parents are trapped, too…

Who’s responsible?

Making inferencesRival causesEcological fallacyFallacy of the perfect solutionBiases in the argument; the role of meaning and taking sides

Cause and Effect?

The loss of community The trouble of basing an economy on

consumption alone Two treadmills

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Social (and other) costs of consumption

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?

Social (and other) costs of consumption

We are all connected! Indicator species – birds, fish, whales

“At what point does preliminary evidence of harm become definitive evidence of harm?” (p 9)

The Food Chain

Some carcinogens are natural, but many more we have created

Everyone has been exposedCancer rates in general are risingLow doses of common chemicals have caused cancers in lab animals.

Role of cancer on human cells

Five lines of evidence linking chemicals to cancers

Limitations ◦Role of carcinogens is inferred◦Release of carcinogens as an “uncontrolled experiment” (32)

◦No control group, exposures “are uncontrolled and multiple.”

Five lines of evidence linking chemicals to cancers

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%)

Cancer and kids

“…hard to blame children’s cancers on dangerous lifestyle choices.”◦

Childhood cancers are “consistently associated” with parental exposure to paint, petroleum products, solvents, and pesticides

Cancer and kids

Externalities What happens to public land? The “Tragedy of the Commons” Social conflict over resources

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Tragedy of the Commons

What is progress? What is its limits? How much is enough?

The limits of progress?