kellogg co. in the courts

From Reuters:

A consumer group wants to keep Tony the Tiger from promoting sugary cereals on the SpongeBob SquarePants cartoon show, or anywhere else kids are watching.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest on Wednesday announced legal action to try to stop the Kellogg Co., maker of cereals like Frosted Flakes, and Nickelodeon cable network Viacom Inc., from marketing junk food to children.

A planned lawsuit will ask a Massachusetts court to stop the companies from marketing junk foods in venues where 15 percent or more of the audience is under age 8, and to stop marketing junk foods through Web sites, toy giveaways, contests and other techniques aimed at that age group.

The planned lawsuit in Massachusetts is the latest attempt to use the courts to try to battle the growing obesity crisis in the United States. (Read more...)

For me, this goes beyond battling obesity.

According to James McNeal's kids as consumers, "over a billion dollars is spent just on advertising to children," and that children should be referred to as "Kid Konsumers," that are "materialistic" and have an "economic power punch." The preface to the book proudly proclaims how this is a terrific book for those advertising to "four-to-twelve year-olds."

That billion dollars is a modest estimate from 1992; according to the American Psychological Association, that number is estimated at 12 billion dollars as of February 2004. Th APA reccommends that advertising to children under the age of eight be restricted, seeing as children aren't "[a]ble to critically comprehend televised advertising messages and are prone to accept advertiser messages as truthful, accurate and unbiased."

This boom in advertising targeting children is a direct result of the FCC lifting resctictions in 1981; rescrictions that had been in place since the 1960's. According to Mark Fawler, who was the chairman of the FCC at the time, the television was just another household appliaance, a "toaster with pictures" that didn't have to have any special regulation (Bakan, 2004). This is thrown right in the face of concerned child psychologists and consumer groups, whom acknowledge a reality that's apparently unknown to anyone that's actually in charge of what is allowed on our televisions. APA says that viewing television advertising can "lead to unhealthy eating habits as evidenced by today’s youth obesity epidemic."

Notice a theme here?

Of course, this ignores the current wisdom of this culture of "choice" that currently dominates American politics. Parents are sopposed to be the only ones that should be concerned about their children; government be damned. Children don't buy anything unless their parents put down the dollars for it, right? This fails to take into consideration a common bit of marketing genius called "Nag Factor," which basically is a technique used to urge children to "nag" their parents into taking them to fast food restaraunts, toys stores, et cetera. Naturally, for a corporation, a parent trying to make their kid shut the hell up for five minutes is seen as a perfect opportunity to make sales. Once you recognize a weakness, you exploit it as much as you can, to the chagrin of anyone trying to be that responsible parent that you hold up as your justification for the very same exploitation.

But conservatives and corporatists will be shouting in the streets about statist control of the markets if any sort of advertising restrictions are ever enforced, and how if you decide to limit the ways in which children can be manipulated by advertising today, you're likely going to be a communist nation tommarow.

This is all consistant with the conservative view that America isn't a society. Any nation is viewed by the modern conservative menace as a large collection of people, and that this is an invitation to exploit them in as many ways as can be imagined.

Nobody's looking to turn our businesses into state controlled outlets; we just want to let our five year olds watch a half hour of Sponge Bob Squarepants without having to wonder if they're going to be screaming about McDonalds or some variety of chocolate milk or whatever bullshit contraptions they're selling that they call "toys." Is that so much to ask?