Protecting Your Child from Capitalism

30 T I K K U N W W W. T I K K U N . O R G N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 8 I ’ve quit television twice now. The relapse occurred in 2002 when the San Francisco Giants made the World Series. I quit again in 2004 upon learning that my wife,Mary,waspregnant. There are two secrets I’d like to share about giving up television. The first is that after about two weeks the urge to watch goes away. I had thought the impulse would lingerformaybetwoyears. Thesecondrevelationisthatquittingisnobigdeal.MaryandIdonotnoticetheTV’sabsence . Cassidy, our daughter, who is now three years old, has never seen a show. She leads a rich life filled with family and friends, simple toys, parks, our garden, cafes where we hang out, and above all, a ceaseless imagination that passionately devours everything in its path. She has no idea what McDonald’s is, but she can name dozens of fruits and vegetables from our garden and will happily instruct you in ways to prepare them. She’s never met a Disney characterbutinsteadlivesinaworldinhabitedbynumerousimaginaryfriends. ChoosingaTV-freeexistenceisonewayMaryandItrytoprotectourfamilyfromcorporate capitalism. We also frequent locally owned businesses and farmer’s markets, periodically try to simplify our lives, ask friends and relatives not to give Cassidy toys or clothes produced by large corporations, and send Cassidy to a preschool attended entirely by children from TV-free households. We are fortunate enough as white, middle-class professionals to have the time, opportunity, and, ironically enough, money to erect partial barriers between our family and the oppressive forces of corporate culture. But our decision regardingtelevisionhasprobablyhadthemostimpact . In the United States, the standard sixty-minute TV show includes sixteen minutes of commercials.Addtothatproductplacement,productintegrationintoplotlines,pop-upads ontheperipheryofscreens,andothernewtechniquesforinsertingmarketingmessagesinto shows. Although the exact figures are hard to come by, it’s a safe bet that one-third of televisioncontentisadvertising . TV ads do not simply sell products. Rather, taken together, they convey the message that theconstantaccumulationofcorporateproductsisthekeytohappiness.Icallthiscorporate materialism.Myguessisthatmostmarketersdonotsetouttosellthecorporateeconomyto their customers. Instead, their commercials reflect the underlying values and beliefs of the corporateworldinwhichtheyareimmersed. Similarly, most television shows are written and produced by individuals who work for large media conglomerates. They too, in all likelihood, do not intend to promote capitalism. But their programs at least implicitly—by means of the characters’ actions, clothing, DAWN MAYELL (TOP), JEANNETTE HANBY (MIDDLE) DAVID BYGOTT (BOTTOM) Allen D. Kanner, Ph.D., is a co-founder of the Campaign for a Commercial–Free Childhood (www.commercialfreechildhood.org), co-editor of Psychology and Consumer Culture and Ecopsychology , and a Berkeley child, family, and adult psychologist. Protecting Your Child From Capitalism by Allen Kanner (top)Theauthor’sdaughter, Cassidy,center,withherfriends. (middle)Tanzanianchildrenwithself -madetrucks. (bottom)Whyuseyour imaginationtobuildatoy whenyoucanwatchthe “real” thingonTVandbuy theofficiallylicensed replica? Politics_3.qxd:Politics 11/5/08 1:35 PM Page 30 N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 8 W W W. T I K K U N . O R G T I K K U N 31 possessions,andaspirations—endorseconsumervalues. TVproducersareloathtoairprogramsthatarecriticalofcorporations,consumerism,or capitalism, for fear of alienating their sponsors. The result is that television production has built-infiltersthatblockalternativeviewpoints,aformofsystemiccensorship. Throughtheinterweavingofthesethreefactors—theceaselessmarketingofcorporate materialism, programs steeped in consumer values, and censorship of opposing perspectives—televisionfunctionsasapropagandatoolforcorporatecapitalism.Mary and I have chosen not to expose Cassidy to such compelling manipulation, especially sincefarmorenurturingandenjoyableactivitiesareavailable. Onesuchactivity,ofcourse,isplay.Cassidyushersnearlyallofhersignificantexperiences into her pretend worlds. This is as it should be, for nature cleverly designed play tobeessentialtochildren’scognitive,social,andemotionaldevelopment.ThatiswhyI amflabbergastedthatthecorporateworldisattackingtherealmofchildren’smake-believe and succeeding. Many teachers, educators, and parents are reporting the demise of free play. One example: teachers are observing that children don’t know what to do whenleftaloneduringrecess. As psychologist Susan Linn noted in The Case for Make Believe, corporate marketing is a key contributor to the American child’s paucity of play. One example is the prevalence of licensed products such as dolls and action figures based on media characters. Children limit their play with these toys to the screen versions of the stories on which the licensedcharactersarebased .Ninety-sevenpercentofAmericanchildrenundersevenownat leastonelicensedproduct.Similarly,playisdrasticallyconfinedbytherelativelyfewoptions provided by fancy electronic toys, which are extremely popular. In sharp contrast, children’s imaginations roam...