Branding the Young
By Jonathan Maziarz / January 7, 2009
It’s alarming to see how many brands my four-year-old son already recognizes, even out of their normal context.
The first one I can recall him parroting back regularly was, of course, McDonalds. No surprise there; Chicken McNuggets are the only meat product he consumes. (And, he only ate his first one because I tricked him by telling him it was a cookie.)
He’s never been formally tested, but my son must have outstanding vision because he can spot the Golden Arches from miles away. We can be motoring along and I’ll hear from the backseat, “Daddy, there’s McDonalds.” Sure enough, in a few minutes, one will appear on the horizon.
But he also knows the signs for WalMart and Publix, two stores we shop at each weekend. He knows Starbucks, Home Depot and Lowes. Amazingly, during the Eagles-Vikings game last weekend, he noticed that the halftime show was sponsored by Lowes, seeing the tiny logo in the corner of the screen, something that had flown right past me.
The cynic in me also notes that he recognizes every Sesame Street character, especially Elmo, Grover and Big Bird, as well as Sponge Bob Squarepants, and anyone who doesn’t think that those critters are also brands is seriously deluding themselves.
What does all this marketing mayhem mean to a toddler? It’s really hard to say. On one level, he’s still at the age where he won’t remember anything and tomorrow is impossibly far away. On another, I can’t help but fear that now that the marketers have their meathooks in him, they are never letting go.
— Jonathan
January 7th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
But Jonathan, were you not the same way at that age?
It’s been almost 29 years since I was 4 (holy crap, I’m that old?), and at that age I recognized countless Sesame Street characters, Disney characters, Saturday morning cartoon characters (remember Smurfs?), etc ad nauseam. Not to mention McDonald’s, Burger King, White Castle, etc.
For anyone in the western world not exposed to and familiar with all these brands by age 4, I would think there would be some concern over whether they had developmental issues, or were locked up in a basement. Brands are all around us, and they can’t be avoided – always have, and I presume always will be.
January 9th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Kari, I’m only a few years older than you and remember when all seven television channels came into the house via antennna (NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS and a couple of UHF channels). I’m certain that at the age of four I likely pestered my parents for the latest Christmas toy, but the marketing of the mid to late 1970s was nowhere near as pervasive as it is now, especially as it pertains to children. We’ve just finished the college bowl season and had the Fedex Orange Bowl and the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. They used to just be the Orange Bowl and the Fiesta Bowl. Now, it seems, everything is a marketing vehicle. We currently get more versions of Nickeledeon via satellite than I had channels growing up. Each of those channels is dedicated to ensnaring young minds in order to hopefully build customers for life. What the latent effects of this relentless and pervasive marketing will be remain to be seen.