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Kids Furniture - our Kids being targeted by consumerism.
The United States is putting more and more emphasis on consumerism. Every where you look you get the message that you need to own things in order to be a success. This pressure to accumulate material goods is causing many people to get into huge credit card debt. I did not realize until recently how much the advertisers focus on children.
I do not have any children so I have not watched cartoons or Saturday morning television shows for many years. One Saturday I was sick in bed with a cold, I turned on the television and as I was flipping through the channels I decided to watch some of the programming that is designed for children. In the half hour program there were six two minute commercial breaks. Each commercial was for products that children would want, everything from high sugar cereal to kids furniture. The commercials were filled with attention grabbing colors and music so that the child would stay focused on the television.
A few weeks later I went to visit my niece. She has three young children. When I went to the bathroom when I was at her house I walked past one of the children’s room. There were several pieces of kids furniture in the space. The table and chairs I recognized from the commercial I had seen during that Saturday morning television show. My niece showed me their family room. It is in the lower level of the home. Off the family room is a large play room with glass French doors. This room was filled with the children’s toys. There was additional kids furniture in this area. My niece said that once the children were older they would convert this room into an exercise space. I asked her about all the kids furniture. She said that her father-in-law works for the company that manufactures the kids furniture so he gets it for a discount and gives it to the children. She said that they would not be able to afford the number of piece that they have because it is so expensive. She is not sure what she is going to do with all of the kids furniture once the children out grow it.
I told her about my experience of watching the television program. She agrees that the children are bombarded to want products. She also said that the ads work on adults also because most of the things her children have were given to them by adults. She no longer buys them toys for gifts because they get so many from other people. She buys them practical things such as clothing and shoes.
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