Posted in My Homeschool FAQs

Last night I went to our local YMCA to meet a friend of mine to co-host our monthly “How to Begin Homeschooling” class.  I walked in the front door and BAM there it was, advertising!  Okay, I might as well admit it right here.  Advertising is my pet peeve!  I couldn’t believe it right above the sign in desk were brand new (HUGE) signs for Shell Gas and Green Valley Grocers.  YUCK!  I have a big bulging folder of articles and information I have collected over the last 6 years regarding advertising.  I don’t really know why I am collecting it, but in the back of my mind I keep thinking maybe I will put together a homeschool curriculum to educate kids on advertising.  


Advertising makes me crazy! Especially advertising to children.  I cannot believe how our society is handing over our kids to become little commercialized consumers.  It seems to me it all started getting out of hand with Happy Meals.  What a great idea.  A gift with every meal.  Let’s get those kids hungry for stuff! Ah, but don’t just giving them something to ply with when you can attach it to a product.  Let’s partner with Disney and advertise directly to kids every new Disney movie coming out.  But, it gets better, let’s get parents to actually pay for the stuff!  Wow, what a concept!  Don’t get me wrong, it’s not just McDonalds, it’s everywhere.  Branding, product placement, celebrity endorsements, advertising in schools, in school text books (What you haven’t heard of that one? Adbuster.org webpage in June of 2001 had an article on Brand Names in TextBooks.  “…as the old textbooks depict Dick and Jane skip down generic streets. It’s a place where Michael Jordan eats Whoppers and Leonardo DiCaprio relaxes at the Viper room.”)  It’s out of hand.  One of the Articles I have collected says the “Americans daily witness as many as 3000 ad messages.”  (Mothering Magazine 2004) and according to a New York Daily News article the annual budget for advertising is $15 billion dollars.  How can a mere parent combat that?

So what can we do?  Here are a few of the things we are doing at our house.

1. Don’t watch commercials!  We use TIVO for much of our TV view and zip right through the commercials.  I tell the kids.  Don’t watch the commercials, I want you to think for yourself.  (Not to mention way too my commercials are filled with sexual content not appropriate for kids!)
2. Don’t shop major brands.  We do the vast majority of our grocery shopping at Natural Food Stores that focus on the quality of the food not on advertising to bring in more sales. (Trader Joe’s Wild Oats, Whole Foods)  This way we are buying THE FOOD not THE HYPE.  I have never seen s advertisement for most of the products on my pantry shelf.
3. Shop 2nd hand.  We buy almost all our clothing 2nd hand.  This neutralizes advertising.  By the time my kids get the clothing we are just looking for things we like, that fit and are in good condition.  This of course has a lot of other benefits such as saving money, helping the environment and becoming a fun hobby (yard sailing and thrift shopping) for the whole family!
4. Don’t let it in! I am amazed when I go into house and see a room decorated in Coca-Cola!  I’ve seem Oreo’s on a bedspread & SpongeBob on about everything!  We don’t use advertising products in our decorating.  We also don’t wear advertisements on our clothing!  The only clothing my kids have that advertise anything are the ones that we buy at the Christian Bookstore saying things like “Get Life – Accept Christ!”  (My son actully has a shirt like this that looks like a Nintendo Game Advertisment, but is actually a Christian Witness.)
5. Give kids an allowance. We start our kids on an allowance when they are 4.  They get $1.00 for each year old they are.  (Yes, our 11 year old gets $11.00 a week!)  Why you ask?  To teach them about money.  You can’t learn how to be a responsible consumer if you don’t know the value of a dollar.  My kids NEVER ask me for money.  It just is unheard of.  They know exactly how much they get per week and they save for things they want.  My oldest now even has a few magazine subscriptions and online games he makes monthly payments to out of his allowance.  They are less likely to want something just because it’s a certain brand if they are paying for it with their own money.
6. Homeschool. -  One of the many beauties of homeschooling is you get to select what gets into your kids heads!  You don’t have to use a curriculmn that uses Brand Names in their Text books.  (You don’t even have to use textbooks. Plus, by being home they are not seeing advertising signs in the hallways, having free handouts of products between classes and eating out of vending machines at lunch.  My neice, who goes to public school was recently telling me that on Fridays they have Papa John’s pizza at school, but she hates it because it doesn’t taste like Papa Johns.  I asked her what made her think it was Papa Johns and she said.  “They hand it to you in a Papa Johns box.”  Being home your kids have less chances to be exposed to those 3000 messages a day!
7. Be Aware. Pay attention and get into a mind set to notice advertising.  If I had allowed myself to become desenitized to advertising I probably would not have even noticed the new advertising signs at the YMCA.  Because I make a effort to keep advertising influences to a minimum they hit me the minute I walked in the door.  Recently I was out running errands and I needed some BarBQue Sauce for dinner.  I was right by a Wal-Mart Superstore, so I thought I would just run in and grab a bottle.  I rarely go to SuperWalMart.  It overwhelms me.  But I run in since I was sans kids.  I search and find the BBQ Sauce aisle.  That’s right aisle.  I measured they had a 7 foot by 6 foot section of the store dedicated to BBQ Sauce!  I couldn’t believe it.  Who need this much choice.  Trader Joe’s has 1, maybe 2 types to choose from.  I stood there for quite sometime trying to make a choice.  Finally a woman walked up and grabbed a bottle.  I decided to just buy what she bought, I fugured she must have seen all the ads and “knew” this one was best!  LOL  I know I was probably the only person in the store having a crisis over what BBQ Sauce to by.  When I left the store I felt drained .   We have protected ourselves from this time of mass commercializem and when we experience it we feel overwhelmed.  
8. Talk to your kids. I know if you’re a homeschooler you are already doing this one.  I am constantly talking to my kids about advertising.  We see a comercial, a billboard, a product placement and I ask them “Why do you think they are advertising here?”  We discuss who the clientele is for which products and why advertisers choose to advertise where they do.  My 4 year old is frequently daying “Oh, we don’t need that, thay just want our money!” Mothering Magazine 2004 says “Research has shown that American children spend almost as much time everyday with TV’s, Computer & other media as they do in the classroom.”  The great thing about the world being our classroom is we can combat this!  We can raise our kids to think for themselves nd be wise consumers.  Homeschoolers can make a difference.