The Positive Side of Child Marketing

This past class we began our transition into learning about media for kids. In the first article we read From Tony the Tiger to Slime Time Live discussed how the 1980's lead to a new era of marketing towards kids. In 1980 the deregulation bill was passed and the market became free to try and profit off of whoever it pleased. One of the biggest changes was the fact that now, advertisers were allowed to target kids of any age. While the article focuses mainly on the negative aspects of this, I've chosen to focus on some of the positive. Surely, not all media being thrown at kids can be crap.

During the 1980's a whole slew of children's TV shows were sold as multimedia products, meaning they were not just a television show, but a series of toys, video games, comic books and often times made into food. Some of the most memorable ones to me are G.I. JOE, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers and The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

The fact that all of these series could be experienced both by watching television, playing with action figures, playing video games and by reading is pretty cool. If you're a kid, imagination is the best part of your life. In fact, lets face it, most of what you think about when your a kid is make believe. While the real world is pretty exciting and filled with fun new facts every day, kids spend more time focusing on make believe media then they do on being concerned about what real life is like, or what they're going to do when they grow up. And how much does a career matter at that age? Zilch. People argue that kids can't just play in their backyard with a stick anymore. Sure, kids aren't as easily entertained, but they're simply experiencing imagination in a different, more interactive way. And aren't the filmmakers, writers and artists who help create these TV shows just kids who never grew up? 



A craze more recent and more popular with my generation is the Harry Potter series. Harry Potter books have sold over 400 million copies, made over 900 million in ticket sales for movies and has made even more money off of merchandising. There's even a theme park. 400 million copies is a lot of kids reading. Yes, Harry Potter is aimed more towards a teenage audience but the first book has been read by kids as young as nine, maybe even younger. Why is this such a good thing? Because the books have received a number of literary awards and for kid's books, include a pretty heavy vocabulary. With all the complaining about how often kids spend on media no one ever thinks about how much more kids are reading because of the number of ways they can experience media. Read the book? I can't wait to see the movie! Seen the movie? I can't wait to read the book! Also, Harry Potter tackles much more complex themes and issues then the before mentioned TV series. Stephen King, an extremely acclaimed writer quotes, "Harry Potter is about confronting fears, finding inner strength and doing what is right in the face of adversity." Can you think of a theme that's not in Harry Potter? I can't.

Having a multimedia children's market offers kids the chances to play by themselves on a console or computer, play with their friends with action figures, watch TV and THINK about being the characters, read, or if they feel like it, simply pretend to be a TV show character, with no form of media in front of them. Kids still have strong imaginations, they're just a bit more spoiled then the last generation.