We believe that by articulating very clearly the depth and breadth of that competition, it will help mothers see what they are up against and then decide how to respond appropriately. You are trying to get your children to eat chicken and broccoli and all they want is Domino's Pizza because that's the one that's on the TV. . . . My kids are wonderful kids, but sometimes I feel like I'm a salmon swimming upstream. I can't imagine that there are any mothers out there who don't know what I'm talking about. A professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland, and chairman of the media and television committee of the American Academy of Child and Adolescenct Psychiatry, he considers the struggle between parents and marketing for the minds and spirits of America's children to be a critical one.
Advertising is exploitative. . . .
We have to appreciate that children are not small adults. They have to be protected. In 1750 B.C., as part of his code, Hammurabi made it punishable by death to sell things to minors. He was a little harsh. Other groups are clamoring to protect children from manipulative marketing as well.