Consuming Kids & Story Of Stuff

Consuming Kids

In the documentary Consuming Kids I learned that corporations and advertisers target young children when selling their products because they are who determine what is going to be bought in their households. The documentary gives attention to the practices corporations use to sell products to children and their parents. It also demonstrates how marketers have turned young children into one of the most powerful consumer. An example they used was a car commercial in which a little girl brought a mini van for show and tell and all her classmates were enjoying all the features that the car that supposedly has to offer to them.  One huge way marketers sold products was by airing shows just to sell toys based on them. Many TV shows and cartoon characters are also advertised on junk food products and in fast food restaurants, so children can be attracted to it and buy the products. Product placement soon began to take place in well-known movies and online games.
       The example of the car commercial was used to show how advertisers target just children. They didn't use adults enjoying the car, but used children instead.The commercial started off with a little girl showing off her Sienna Toyota minivan to her classmates. As the commercial continues on with the little girl explaining the greatness of it, her classmates get the chance to enjoy the car as well. The rest of the commercial consists of the children enjoying all the features the car has to offer, even though they aren't the ones who are actually going to drive the car. This car commercial was specifically made to influence the child's decision in the purchase of a car. Only because during the whole commercial, the only people who were enjoying the car were the kids.
       Another example that was shown, was the strategy that marketers used to target children to buy products. Marketers would specifically make cartoons and TV shows just to sell toys based off of them. These cartoon characters were branded on blankets, backpacks and so many other products so children can see and think of the product from when they go to sleep to when they go to school. This technique worked so well that when it came to food products, children were so sure that a food product (like Scooby Doo mac n cheese) tasted better than normal macaroni and cheese just because the cartoon character was shown on it. The thing was that the child hadn't even tasted the product and was already saying it tasted better than the ordinary macaroni and cheese when it's literally the same thing.
      Product placement also plays a huge role when it comes to a child determining what will be bought. Products were purposefully put in movies and video games just so kids were exposed to them.
        All these techniques that marketers use are the reason why children are growing up to the idea that buying stuff will bring happiness in their lives.

(This photo shows exactly how much children are exposed to products and how they are mainly the ones being targeted when a product is being advertised)

Story of Stuff

I learned that our society consumes more than we actually need and demand the products to be cheap as well, and because of this, we are destroying the global environment. Story of Stuff is a documentary that shows a portrayal of the life cycle of material goods. It analyzes a critical vision of our consumerist society. In order for a product to be made, a lot of resources and lands are destroyed, causing disruption on lands and slowly killing the planet. This is because we build factories in third world countries because it is much cheaper and there are no environment restriction. Not only is that killing the planet, but factories (where the product is produced) releases a bunch of toxins and waste into the environment. This causes many problems to the workers at these factories because they are exposed to all these toxic substances. Then there's the consumers, who buy more than they actually need. The media plays a big role in the consumption process. The media convinces the consumer to buy a product and make them think that they need it in order to fit into society. For example, fashion changes constantly, year after year. One year bigger sizes of heels are in and the other smaller heel sizes are in. This keeps the consumer buying more products, and also wasting and throwing out more. At this rate, the consumer ends up buying way too much and in about 6 months or so, most of the products they bought are going to be thrown out. That trash usually ends up in landfills or gets burnt. When it gets burned, the toxins that most products contain are released into the air through smoke. These toxins are more dangerous than other kinds of toxins, and worse part is that it is man-made.