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Health & Fitness

Blog: Mount Washington PTA to Screen Film on Marketing to Children

A special of the documentary film, Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Children this Friday night, April 5th, 6:00 p.m. at Mt. Washington School, 3981 San Rafael Avenue, Los Angeles, CA.

“It’s all in the marketing,” I astutely told my husband one night over dinner.  I had just successfully convinced my two “pink-obsessed” daughters to eat salmon by marketing it as “pink chicken.”  For years, we boosted their Omega-3 fatty acid intake all with a little deceptive, albeit well-intentioned, marketing.  So when the documentary Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood came to my attention, I felt I could relate to the unabashed marketing tactics of the major corporations highlighted in this film, having partook of such tricks myself.     

The film pulls out all the stops examining and illustrating the nuances and fine-tuning of methods marketers will go to so that they can attract kids to their products and services.  It makes the claim that children are being trained to be consumers, arguably at too young of an age.  Whether this is a good or bad thing is really for a parent to decide, one might suggest.  Yet movie makes the claim, in our intense consumer-driven society, it’s not that easy for parents these days. 

For me, personally and as a mother, consumerism should start with education and awareness.  I live in Los Angeles, home to major film studios with powerful and well-funded marketing departments.  Short of moving to some isolated Internet-free mountain in Montana, I know I can’t shield my children from the powers of marketing any more than I can momentarily blind them as we drive by an American Apparel billboard.  But I can better learn the game.  And in a very compelling way, Consuming Kids helps in that effort. 

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If you’re a parent, or a parent to be, and find yourself in a state of ambivalence, confusion, or consternation on the impact that media, marketing, and product placement has on you and your little ones, then come out to see this movie at Mount Washington Elementary School this Friday (Aprl 5) night. 

Sponsored by Mount Washington PTA,  a special screening of Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood will be held at Mount Washington Elementary School, 3981 San Rafael Avenue, Los Angeles, CA this Friday, April 5 starting at 6 p.m. 

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Open and free to the public, this documentary presents a compelling overview of the marketing industry's tactics and explores the effects of consumerism on the imaginative lives of children.  Childcare can be provided by emailing programs@mwpta.org

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